RoTG: Embers of a Nightmare
by That-Cheeky-Bat
Summary: After a death in the Bennett family, Scotty comes back to reconnect with her family. Unknown to her, she would be stepping foot into secrets of her own past & right into Pitch's new plan. Will the Guardians be able to protect her from Pitch & her own fear? Or will the fire that's haunted her burn everything to the ground all over again?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitch Stafford.

I would like to send a very heartfelt Thank You to my friend and editor pssnangel4. If it weren't for her countless encouragement and ability to read through and discover what I wanted to say through my various wtf mishaps (when I'm on a role I make a lot of mistakes and forget words) while writing this story it probably never would have been posted. Yep. It'd still be rotting on a flash drive. Anyways I digress. A big thanks to her and I owe her a drink or two for resisting the urge to flip tables on me when I drive her bats (see what I did thar?).

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

Just so nobody gets confused, each time I change character perspectives I'll underline the name of the character. That's what all the ...Scotty:, ...Pitch:, etc... stuff is. In Word I had a really nice division thing I was using but apparently this doesn't want to copy those (the lack of indent lines is also making me twitch) so I do apologize for this inconvenience.

**Update 2/11/13:** I'm thinking about changing the rating on this story to **T**, so if you are following this story and are interested in continuing to read then please start checking the **T** rating area for it! I'm doing this because it isn't too dark of a story and my language is fairly restrained. I will be uploading it in the **T** section by the end of tonight!

Enjoy! (Hopefully)

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...Scotty:

Scotty had gone out to get her mail from her worn out, rusty, mailbox in her small apartment complex. She waved to the few neighbors who were awake at four in the morning, when she got off work as a stocking clerk for a clothing store, and opened the mailbox with a loud and audible mix between a creak and a squeak that made her wince. The thing was like nails on a chalk board and always made her rub her ear on her shoulder in an attempt to get the sound out of her head. Scotty shook off the goose bumps that rose on her arms from the irritating noise and then closed it with another creak. She gave herself a solid shake and took a sip of her freshly brewed coffee as she headed for her apartment.

She opened the shabby shack like door that was a sorry excuse for a door and entered into one of the smallest studio apartments she'd ever seen. Her twin bed, covered in shabby sheets from the Goodwill, took up a majority of her living room and the kitchen was just as small with a single counter available as a table with a matching stool seat. It was a sad excuse for a living place, but then again, when you're only making about ten to twelve dollars a night one can't be picky. She closed the door behind her and took a seat at the kitchen counter that doubled as a table. She turned on the radio next to her for some noise, low volume so she wouldn't disturb the other occupants of the apartment complex, and shifted through the mail pretty quickly.

Credit card, bill, credit card, phone bill, junk mail, etc… With a puff of air Scotty sent her bangs, which covered her gray right eye, up in the air. She continued to shift through the mail, throwing the credit card offers in with the junk mail and ensuring that she kept close tabs on the bills, and stopped her quick sorting with a sharp gasp. She knew this particular envelope was coming, but she still couldn't believe it was here now.

Scotty hadn't seen her Grandmother in a few years, becoming very busy with being a grown up after feeling that her welcomed stay within her Aunt's home had extended past being a pleasant welcome. Scotty had decided to pick up and move at the age of sixteen and essentially had to make her own way in the world from there. However, she had always received at least a monthly phone call from her Grandmother. It was the typical, "How're you doing," "Do you need money," "Are you taking care of yourself," and so on. Generally, she felt annoyed at these phone calls and their conversational consistency, and for the past few months as they were seemingly dwindling she found that she'd missed them dearly.

Scotty let out a little whimper that threatened to turn into a cry as her hand shook as it held the violet colored envelope from a family member that Scotty knew was taking care of the Bennett matriarch. She opened it, knowing what was inside, and looked at the obituary within it. Grandmother Bennett, the one woman who always seemed to care about her family and wanted them to constantly keep in contact, had passed late last night from old age. Scotty set the card down next to her and continued to busy her mind by organizing the mail and came across what was probably the last letter her grandmother had wrote to her.

She sucked up the tears that threatened to spill over her eyes and hardened her heart as she read through the smooth cursive writing that was easy to read, yet still elegant looking. It encompassed the last few months, Jamie's excitement over losing his tooth and Sophie's fascination with rabbits. However, this wasn't what caught Scotty's attention. She stared at the last few lines of the note,

_Scotty, please come back and spend time with your family. We miss you._

_Love, Sarah Bennett._

With that Scotty sat back on her cheap stool and cried her first tear since she was ten and attending her mother and father's funeral.

...Pitch:

Pitch had spent the last year and a half hiding from those Guardians. He'd been beaten fair and square by them, outnumbered and out witted as well by nothing more than children. Pitch scoffed, kicking a rock across his shadowed realm, and turned towards the globe that sat in the center. Lights glittered everywhere on the damndable thing, and he couldn't seem to find place to get himself back into the power he had in the Middle Ages. That was until his constant world searching and patience turned up the view of a particular individual who was hot headed and particularly scary to the young kids in the neighborhood.

Pitch let out an evil chortle as he watched this hot-headed bully beat up on kids, pick on them, and essentially caused them great fear. Pitch summoned up a history on this kid, watching as his life took one unfortunate turn after another. As he turned to present day he noticed the kid had grown into a hulking behemoth, which made the kid's deeds all that easier to accomplish. He laughed at each child this kid put into a dumpster, each kid that was shoved into a locker, and even outright laughed for the first time in centuries when he saw none other than that annoying child Jamie have his lunch money stolen and pushed into a ditch. It was bittersweet to know that this particularly dark child, a teen these days, was living within the confines of the same city as Jamie.

Pitch rubbed his jaw, continuing to take pride in the absolute fear this kid caused in the children and in the other teens as well. Big, brawny, and the size of a linebacker matched with a hot-headed temper and a short fuse, and Pitch saw a pool of potential. He laughed with glee when he realized that since the Man in the Moon had got his Guardians, then perhaps Pitch should have his own group of Heretics within his Shadow realm. The fact that his first member, who he'd turn willingly or not, was located in the same city as Jamie was icing on the cake.

He turned sharply and gave the Nightmare, which he had calmed after destroying the rest, and gave it a soothing pat on the nose. He paced in a small circle, contemplating his first few steps within the process of making his own, darker, version of the Guardians.

An evil grin appeared on his face when he decided his first applicant will be someone to which that annoying Jack Frost would find difficult to handle. Pitch rubbed his hands together and looked above. The small hole above his realm showed him the bright blue sky that the Man in the Moon inhabited at night and come nightfall he'd venture out under the shadows of the Waxing Gibbous and make a visit to this fine, upstanding, citizen worthy of the Shadow realm. Come sunset he'd go to this particular child and make him and offer he really shouldn't refuse.

...Scotty:

Scotty picked up her last paycheck from Target and headed for the airport. She boarded the plane, her few material possession packed into her rolling suitcase and in the worn out leather backpack she had kept from a kid, and took a seat. She let out a breath, wondering how long it would take for her to reach the Eastern seaboard via plane. She was thinking she'd arrive there about the break of winter, maybe two to three weeks before Christmas. Her Aunt, Emily, had offered her the spare bedroom in the attic on the stipend that Scotty babysat her cousins Jamie and his younger sister Sophie whenever her Aunt needed her to.

Scotty had agreed, of course, free room and board plus home cooked meals for babysitting two kids? That was the easiest job she could think of, and as she got settled within the city she could start job hunting and looking for places to move into. Scotty hugged her knees to her body and wondered if her Aunt would be welcoming or not. Granted Aunt Jeannette had seemed welcoming at first, but as soon as the pressure of a growing family at home and a shortage of bedrooms and money had set in the welcome mat had vanished in the blink of an eye.

Scotty let out another sigh, something she'd been doing a lot of lately, and pulled out the books she'd bought in accordance to what her grandmother had been telling her that Jamie had been interested in. She opened the first and smirked at the title, settling in for a good long read in order to pass the time it would take to reach her Aunt's city. She sat back, took out an apple, and munched as she felt the plane lurch forward after the usual announcements.

...North:

North was once again sitting in his office taking a break from making toys. Currently he was practicing his magic, after he finished his carvings that is. For now he sat in what accounted for his office and listened to the Dance of the Sugar Plum fairy. As he did so he carefully carved out a ballerina from an icicle. Upon finishing her, and the small details, he gave the doll a breath of life and watched as she mechanically began to pirouette on his table.

North chuckled happily to himself, clapping with the music and her pirouetting, and jumped in his seat when Phil threw open his door with a slam that reverberated through the walls of his office. North, frowning at the Yeti and noticing that the ballerina had flopped lifelessly on the desk, stood.

"Phil, I have told you countless times do not disturb me while I am working." He said with that thick Russian accent of his. Phil had an urgent look on his face, similar to the one he'd sported before when something had gone wrong within the workshop, and made urgent gruffing noises. North tsked the Yeti as he stood and passed by him and headed out into the busy workshop, avoiding elves that clustered his feet. "How many times must I tell you," He once again mimicked like a broken record towards the elves, "get out from under boot."

North stopped in front of the globe as Phil pointed at it in the center of his workshop, after telling a few Yeti's to fix some of the toys and signing a few papers. He put his hands on his hips, spread his legs in a strong superhero stance, and looked at the glowing globe. North rubbed his beard, staring with his glittering blue eyes at the globe, and upon seeing nothing wrong with it he shrugged. He was more than willing to search for a fight, seeing as Pitch was probably still sour from the last battle, but with Christmas bordering within the next few weeks he honestly didn't want to deal with Pitch and Christmas at the same time.

North was about to turn away from the globe when he heard the clicking of heels coming from its opposite side. His grin widened as he stepped forward and began rounding the globe and spotted his, at this current time, girlfriend Kristy. She was a glorious woman who'd found her way into his workshop by utter accident, and had managed to find a way into everyone's heart through her baked goods and eagerness to help within the workshop and keep the joy of children working.

"Angel moy, how are you this evening?" North asked the woman who had essentially stolen his heart the past few months.

"Well, North, it is a bit cold." She said with a smile on her warm cheerful heart shaped face as she shivered a little. Her light brown eyes, resembling the color of caramel, glittered with joy. "I didn't expect you out of the office so soon. Did you get a long enough break?"

"Yes, Angel, I did." North gave Kristy a warm embrace and turned back towards the globe. "Phil brought me out here to look at the globe."

Kristy cuddled into his right side and blinked at the globe, her salt and pepper hair falling in curling tendrils from her bun. She stood there for a moment and then went forward towards the globe. She leaned down a little and pointed at a single spot on the globe. North frowned as he stepped forward next to his angel and leaned down to look at the black spot on the map. He glanced up, seeing the moon was nearly full, and took in a sharp breath.

"Oh Angel moy, this is not very good." He replied, turning sharply on his heel and heading towards his office again.

Kristy was right on his heels and closed the office door behind him as they went inside. "What is it, North?"

"I believe Pitch Black is up to no good again, and so soon." North shook his head. Then bitterly added, "Also so close to Christmas. No good can come of this."

Kristy went over to North and gave him a comforting rub on his back as she stood to his right side again. "North, you can do anything, and yes, that includes fighting off Pitch, the Boogeyman, and having to deal with Christmas as well."

North turned towards the woman who'd stumbled into his life and gave her a warm smile. "Angel moy, you and the children of the world make me want to do everything possible."

He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and went back out of the office to organize his Yetis and prepare for a backup Christmas plan if he had too. Pitch Black was making a new move, and he needed to be prepared for it. He also needed to gather the Guardians again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

I would like to send a very heartfelt Thank You to my friend and editor pssnangel4. If it weren't for her countless encouragement and ability to read through and discover what I wanted to say through my various wtf mishaps (when I'm on a role I make a lot of mistakes and forget words) while writing this story it probably never would have been posted. Yep. It'd still be rotting on a flash drive. Anyways I digress. A big thanks to her and I owe her a drink or two for resisting the urge to flip tables on me when I drive her bats (see what I did thar?).

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

Just so nobody gets confused, each time I change character perspectives I'll underline the name of the character. That's what all the ...Scotty:, ...Pitch:, etc... stuff is. In Word I had a really nice division thing I was using but apparently this doesn't want to copy those (the lack of indent lines is also making me twitch) so I do apologize for this inconvenience.

Sorry this is a long one.

* * *

...Mitch:

Mitchell Stafford, referred to as Mitch, had a rough life. He had a combination of ADHD and naturally low intelligence, but like most children he had started off with good roots. His father had once been the starting quarterback for his high school with his life in front of him looking extremely successful. He'd applied for University scholarships, NFL leagues were looking at him, and then the usual happened. His father got tackled in a game and he ended up with a bum knee and an even worse back injury that never completely healed. As Mitch's father graduated from High School, his injuries still well present in his daily activities, Mitch got to watch as his father had failed to make it into the big leagues, and had instead become an unsuccessful burger flipper.

Mitch's mother, the high school cheerleader, had up and divorced Mitch's father soon as she found out she wasn't going to be able to become that trophy wife she so desperately wanted to aspire to. Mitch's mother had left the papers for divorce on a cold winter morning just before Christmas and had never returned to even visit Mitch, her son, or attempt to contact him in any way since her departure. Mitch's father had taken the divorce hard and with a consistently bad knee and back that hampered much of his movement, Mitch's father had fallen further into a depression as the bills piled up and debt began to set in. Mitch would watch his father become reliant upon the welfare checks that arrived at his doorstep every month and go directly towards the alcohol his father could afford with that check.

Mitch, in order to deal with the disaster of a situation at home, had found a way to cope. He began to bully kids, especially when his father's husky genes began to set in and he bulked up considerably over the last few years that had made him into a behemoth of a kid. Mitch was also fairly angry in general, agitated with his situation in life and essentially pist off that he had no intelligence to either fix it through natural genius or had the ability to hold a steady job without having his grades suffer. His father, even in his drunken haze, would beat the boy if his grades dropped to a C. Essentially, Mitch was a troubled soul that had many, many fears. He also used those fears to instill it into his fellow students in his constant bullying and through the bullying he found a euphoric glee that, for a short time, solved all of his problems in life.

So imagine his surprise when he had settled into his small twin bed later that night and began to drift off into sleep only to have the once pleasant dreams of his mother returning to whisk him away turn into things of nightmares. Mitch jerked awake at two in the morning, huffing and puffing, and threw the covers off both himself and his bed. He'd been chased down by a black, sandy, looking horse with bright yellow eyes. The thing had chased him and chased him, yet he could never seem to put distance between himself and the horse. Eventually his dream ended with him tripping and the horse rearing its ugly hoofs to stomp on him.

Mitch shook his head, trying to clear the image from his mind and looked at his bare room with nothing more than the moonlight filtering through his broken shades. He sat there on his bed, staring towards the cracked bedroom wall in front of him and wondered how his life could get much worse than this. Letting out a sigh of exhaustion Mitch stood from his bed, which made a dreadful creak as his weight lifted from it, and headed for his bedroom door to go out and grab a drink of water. He also noticed that he really had to use the bathroom as well.

He just about reached his doorknob when he felt like something was watching him and he stopped short of reaching the doorknob. As he looked around he noticed a pair of sinisterly looking silver eyes with a golden circle around the pupil glittering at him from the corner of his room. His voice caught in his throat as he looked at the man, silver eyes, evil grin, with a parrot shaped nose, and a grayish color skin tone with a powdering of soot surrounding his prominent face. The man stepped forward, that face melting from the shadows to show the figure's indefinable black clothing.

Mitch stared at the lanky and tall individual who had a sinister air about him. Reflexively Mitch at first felt fear from this guy and was surprised when said man said something.

"Mitch, I believe?" The man asked in a smooth English accent that sent chills up Mitch's spine.

Mitch nodded, seemingly at a loss for words as the lanky but tall man came towards him, "Yea." Mitch gulped audibly and then asked, "Who're you and how'd you get in my room?"

Pitch smiled at the boy in a man's body both assessing his stature and home. As he finished glancing around the shabby shack that was this kid's room and asked, "Are you happy with your life at the moment?"

Mitch stared at the guy, trying to figure out why he was asking a question like this. Mitch, in response, waved in a semi-circle around his tattered room.

"Do I look happy with my life?" Mitch asked, his voice growling and sounding slightly irritated with the fairly obvious answer.

Pitch laughed heartily. "What if I said I could change that and give you a healthy dose of the power you so desperately want and need?"

Mitch crossed his large, gorilla like, arms and laughed at the guy. "Buddy, I've got all the power I need. I could squish you like a bug."

Pitch smirked at the response. He decided to humor the teen by saying, "Possibly. But why would you do that to the person offering you power?"

Mitch frowned at the guy. "What kind of power?"

Pitch shrugged, wiping a finger across the dust covered desk near Mitch and rubbing the collected dust between his index and thumb finger. "Let me ask you this in response, if you could burn this house to the ground, would you?"

Mitch looked at the ratty interior of his home. He thought about the kitchen that was barely working these days and the cracked kitchen counters. Mitch thought about the bathroom he had to share with his drunken father and the tiles that were falling from the shower's walls faster than Mitch could fix them. He thought about his father, sitting in his recliner day and night in the stained carpet living room watching cable and drinking beers instead of fixing the hedges outside or cleaning the beer bottles from the living room floor. Mitch gritted his teeth, he felt the fury and frustrations of eighteen years of this reach its peak, and looked at the guy in black.

"I'd like to light this place on fire and watch as it burned to the ground." Mitch replied, his temper showing for the white-hot fury it was in his brown eyes and a grin so sinister it matched Pitch's.

Pitch threw his head back and let out a joyful laugh. "Very good. Now, let's get to work. We have other projects to begin."

...Scotty:

Scotty arrived in town at seven at night. Her breath fogged out in front of her as the chill in the air embraced her. She looked to the left and right, wondering if she'd even recognize her Aunt Emily after not seeing her for about five years. Scotty, after waiting a good ten minutes in the nippy cold outside, went into the actual waiting area of the airport to escape the crisp cold air outside and huddled into her sweatshirt. She definitely didn't have the right clothes for this weather and not seeing her Aunt's car outside; Scotty went over to the kiosk in the corner of the waiting area and got herself a warm hot chocolate.

She sat in the lobby/waiting area and began to pace in panic. Her Aunt should've been here already; at least she'd said she'd be waiting. Getting antsy, Scotty headed outside with her luggage and stood at the circling driveway of the airport again. Her breath fogged out in front of her, much more noticeable from the warm drink she was drinking, and grinned when she saw a dotting of snowflakes beginning to fall. Having lived in Southern California and only visiting her family during the summer months, Scotty had never actually experienced a snowfall before. It made her elated to see the snow falling and she traced its path through the air with her eyes. As she looked back down after following another snowflake she saw her Aunt Emily pull up to the curb in her typical minivan. Before her Aunt could turn the engine off Jamie burst from the sliding back door of the van and rushed towards Scotty.

"Scotty!" He shouted, nearly tackling her to the cement as he wrapped himself around her legs and gave them a tight squeeze. "It's been so long, I have so much stuff I have to tell you about!"

"Alright, alright." Scotty managed to wriggle her way out of her cousin's grasp and took a firm hold of her luggage as Jamie walked with her towards the minivan. "Aunt Emily, how're you?"

Aunt Emily gave her a warm smile that had an apologetic edge to it. "We're doing great, Scotty, and I am so sorry we're late. There was ice on the road on the way here and Sophie just got done with a dance recital."

Scotty shrugged. "Rather you guys drive safely than get into a wreck."

Just after Scotty finished saying that a quick breeze blew, bringing with it more snow flakes and laughter from Jamie. Scotty glanced at her cousin and noticed that he seemed to be looking at air. She raised an eyebrow and was about to ask what he was looking at when Sophie giggled in the backseat of the van. Aunt Emily, taking in Scotty's attire, gently took Scotty's luggage from her and headed for the back of the van.

"Come on Scotty, we need to get you some proper clothes for winter." Aunt Emily said. "Jack Frost will nip at your nose if we don't get you in something warmer."

Scotty shrugged. "I can survive I think. I don't have much money left to pay for clothes."

Aunt Emily waved Scotty off. "Scotty, you're standing out here in sandals and jean shorts with what is probably a thin tank top under that hole riddled hoodie."

Scotty grinned. "You got me Auntie; I'm from the West coast. We don't know what cold is."

Aunt Emily laughed warmly, pushing her thick glasses up onto the bridge of her nose as she finished hefting Scotty's suitcase into the back of the van and closed the back. "I need to pick up some groceries from the store anyway. Come on let's get going."

...North:

North had been sitting outside his office and had been working on a few toys to assist the Yetis in their work and sat back to take a five second breathing break. He looked at the glittering globe in front of him and wondered what deeds Pitch was up to. North was baffled that Manny hadn't contacted him yet about what Pitch was doing, but with his eternal trust in his friend in the Moon North had settled with being patient. Kristy came up next to him, handing him a plate of freshly baked cookies of various assortments, and exchanged the plate for the small doll North had been working on.

"She'd look great with brown eyes." Kristy said, grabbing up the paint brush from North's hand as he sat in confusion when it came to how quickly Kristy had exchanged the cookies she had held for the brush right under his nose. North shrugged this exchange off, biting into a warm cookie and setting the plate down on his desk as Kristy began to paint gorgeous almond shaped eyes on the porcelain doll. "Don't you think she'd look good with brown eyes?"

"Angel moy, anything you think looks great probably does." North's attention went from Kristy to the globe, which is when he saw the full moon's rays hit it. North stood up quickly from his rolling chair and went forward, stepping into the small hole in the ceiling of his workshop that allowed those rays to filter through. "Manny! What news do you have for me!?"

Kristy had absently taken his now empty seat and continued to paint the doll he had previously been working on. North glanced back, relieved in the belief that if he absolutely had too, Kristy could easily handle the rush of Christmas time and anything pitch threw at her. He had a faith in her that rumbled true from his belly, just as it had with Jack. North stood in front of the globe as the Man in the Mood lit up the area in front of him. The image of Pitch showed again on the ground and North without even thinking about it, immediately sent out the aurora borealis to summon the Guardians.

North waited with Manny for a few hours as the Guardians gathered. Tooth was the first to arrive, of course. She fluttered in with her little fairies, greeted North and Kristy in quick succession, and immediately went back to barking out orders to her little fairies who gathered the many teeth of the children. North chuckled to himself as Baby Tooth, the one that almost seemed exempt from the spastic work went over next to Kristy to look at the new doll she was working on. Kristy, happy to oblige the curiosity of Tooth's fairy, showed the doll to the tiny hummingbird like fairy as Tooth chattered away in the background, Tooth's wings producing a comforting humming noise.

The next to arrive was Sandy. He bowed to North and Kristy with a small smile on his face. The small yellow-ish, or gold depending on what color you preferred, colored man began to immediately play charades with North, making signs over his head that showed shadow figures, what appeared to be a fire, and a question mark. North nodded, excusing Sandy for the time being once Sandy shrugged in return and headed over towards Kristy as well.

The next to arrive was, of course, Bunny. Bunny came jumping in through the front door and with his arrival came a string of mutterings about how cold it was outside. Bunny took up his usual position next to North at first and was painting up a smoke egg for later use. North nodded towards his arrival and bunny went back towards the workshop table that was accumulating people fast. Bunny nodded his head towards Kristy as he leaned a hip on the workshop table she was sitting at. A few moments passed before Bunny glanced towards North, his eyes roving the room, and then jerked straight as he realized a Guardian was missing.

"Ay, where's Jack?" He asked in that thick Australian accent. "He shoulda been here first, guy's got the bloody wind to carry him across continents in minutes."

Sandy shrugged with a question mark above his head, but wasn't noticed by North or Bunny, while Tooth continued to send out order after order of tooth collecting services.

"You must be patient. I am sure Jack has a good reason for being late." North laughed heartily and went back over to Kristy, picking up a new doll that sat along a line on the table that Kristy was at and throwing it at Bunny. "Here, Easter well past due, help with Christmas."

Bunny pointed the end of his paintbrush at North, exasperation painted on his face, "Listen mate, I paint one doll for you and that's all I'm doing."

North threw his arms out. "What!? I paint all little eggs for you!"

Bunny laughed. "Yea right, I did most of the work. You just watched."

North and Bunny were well into their usual tiff that was more of a general ribbing since both Holidays were celebrated in great exuberance and continued on as a cold breeze shot into the room. Jack landed easily on his feet with the sharp breeze, landing without a sound. Jack nodded his head towards Sandy, the woman who was painting a doll, Tooth, and Baby Tooth. He then looked towards Bunny and North who hadn't noticed that he'd just arrived.

Sandy, bless the little man, had been desperately trying to get the two's attention before he pleaded with Jack to say something with his orange tinted eyes. Jack smirked at Sandy and looked towards the two rival parties.

"Hey guys." He said simply, already looking around the large workshop that he still had yet to meander to its completion. "I saw the signal, what's up?"

"Jack, where were you?" Tooth asked, immediately invading his personal space and looking directly at his teeth again, followed by her fingers in his mouth.

"Tooth!" North said sharply, earning him a sheepish look from Tooth as she pulled her hands from Jack's mouth for the umpteenth time since their meeting. "Jack, you are late. Why must you always be late?"

Jack shrugged that typical grin on his face. "I had to drop off a blizzard or two and visit Jamie."

Bunny jumped forward. "Hey, we're not supposed to be 'visiting' kids. We're to protect them, not 'visit' them."

Jack shrugged. "I like Jamie. He knows how to have some fun."

Tooth tsked him. "Last time he had fun with you he lost his tooth. Jack, he just got that tooth in and I just know you're going to knock out the other."

Jack looked over his shoulder towards the globe swinging his crooked staff and grazing an elf and freezing it, using the momentum of the swinging staff to his shoulder to twist that elf in a small frozen circle. "Oh come on, he lost a tooth. For him that's nothing."

North cleared his throat and garnered the attention of the Guardians. "Jack, stop freezing elves, I have told you countless times." North then went over to the work table that had been vacated upon his greeting and North turned slightly as the woman who had once been there came forward. "I believe you haven't met Kristy yet?"

Kristy, having been drawing a caricature of Baby Tooth's face on one of the dolls, put down the doll on a random workshop table as she came forward. She was holding her hand out and shook Jack's hand, shaking it as she released his hand from the quick touch. The cold from Jack's hand set in from that touch in seconds.

"Hi." Kristy said, her warm brown eyes glittering. "Can I get you guys anything to eat or drink?"

An echoing of 'No thank you' was her answer, except Sandy who asked for a cup of hot chocolate. Kristy, knowing to look for the mute of the group for an answer, saw the image of a tea cup over his head and nodded at him. She left quickly and after she had done so the Man in the Moon, referred to as Manny by North, showed Pitch's image and then another.

"Who is that?" Jack asked, leaning forward towards the image as he sat on a workshop table.

"I don't think I've seen that guy before." Bunny muttered, glancing up from the doll he had just finished painting and setting down on the table. "Bloke's a big guy, innit he?"

Sandy had a question mark over his head while Tooth darted into view and looked at the image. Tooth took in the hulking figure of a teenager. She stared at the deep brown eyes, the black hair that was cut in a short military style, and the sheer size of the teenager and took in a sharp breath.

"Wait…" She darted back and forth, biting one of her fingers, desperately trying to remember where she'd seen that face. It had popped up all too frequently the last few years, yet she was drawing a blank. She stopped in her place, her wings fluttering so fast they were intangible, and gasped. "It's Mitchell!"

"Mitchell?" North asked, watching with everyone else as the image shifted into an inferno.

Jack's mouth fell along with everyone else's. Kristy came back into the room, seeing only the fire, and took in a sharp breath. She handed the cup off to Sandy and went to North, cuddling into his side. The image stopped and Manny's moonlight vanished with an ominous mood filling the void.

"I believe Pitch has found a new companion." North muttered, hugging Kristy to him.

...Scotty:

Scotty had an awful dream that woke her shortly after falling asleep at two this morning. Sleep deprived and slightly jet lagged, Scotty had decided to get up. Dreams about fires, re-enacting the awful memories from the night her parents died, usually put her out of sort and ensured that she wouldn't get any sleep until her brain got off that subject.

Figuring she might as well do something in the early morning she began to start cooking, finding eggs, bread to toast, and orange juice, she set about cooking for her Aunt's family. Scotty opened the book she had been reading the other day and flipped to a new page, reading it off and on as she scrambled eggs and served them up on plates followed quickly by buttered toast and jelly. By the time Emily had came downstairs, Scotty had the entire breakfast for the family ready along with a fresh pot of coffee and cups filled with orange juice for the kids.

Emily's eyes widened. "Wow. Scotty, this is amazing."

Scotty shrugged. "I didn't sleep well last night, figured I might as well cook something in the mean time."

Emily smiled at her and nodded. "Thank you, it's greatly appreciated. If you want you can relax. I already got the kids up and I'll start making their lunches."

Scotty nodded, taking a seat down at the kitchen breakfast table and began to pick at her breakfast. When she'd first got up she hadn't really been that hungry, but out of habit she'd made herself a meal that would hold her for the day. However as she sat down and looked at the meal that had cooled considerably from her cooking her Aunt's family meals first before eating her own, she lost her appetite. Scotty stood and emptied the meal from the plate, hating that she wasted the food, and walked back up the stairs to grab a warm pair of socks for her bare feet.

She passed by Sophie and Jamie on the way, both of whom chattered away at her for the short few minutes they saw her as they crossed paths in the hallway, and soon Scotty reached the ladder to her room in the attic. She pulled it down and climbed it. She made quick work and pulled out a random pair of socks, grabbed up the boots that would work better than her ample supply of sandals she had, and threw them down onto the floor as she climbed back down and released the ladder back into the attic.

As Scotty passed by the kitchen her Aunt gave a holler, making Scotty stop and turn back around. Scotty leaned through the archway to the kitchen and looked for her book as her Aunt held out a lunch box.

"Scotty, can you walk Jamie to school? He knows the way but he's been having a few problems with one of the teenagers." Aunt Emily said, earning a grump from Jamie.

Scotty raised an eyebrow. "Really? A teen is picking on Jamie? That's pretty pitiful."

Aunt Emily nodded as she handed Scotty the book she'd been looking for after Scotty had taken the lunchbox. "Also, remember that tomorrow we're going to Grandma's funeral so you're skipping school, Jamie."

Jamie silently cheered, making Scotty bite her lip and her Aunt sigh disapprovingly at her son who didn't quite have the grasp of what major player in his life had just passed. All Jamie was focused on was the fact that he got a day off from school. Scotty tucked her book onto the end table in the living room as Jamie bolted for his backpack near the front door.

"Race you to the crosswalk!" Jamie shouted, the door slamming in his wake.

Scotty puffed out a breath and rolled her eyes, grabbing a jacket on her way out the door, and dashed after her cousin.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

Author Note: Today has been quite possibly the second worst Monday of my life, and it almost mimicked last year's event by event. Cat gets sick, take cat to vet, run various tests, find out cat is beyond saving because of cancer in his kidneys (was her liver last year), cry and hug cat as they put him (her last time) to sleep, and then continue crying while in a state of numbness. Trust me, I'll be okay, it just might take awhile to recover. I am so friggin happy I have this story finished, makes posting depressed easier lol.

Anyway, off from that awful, awful, day and onto the next, right? 'Always look on the bright side of life.' I'm gonna hug my bat stuffed animals all night :[

Also to the few who have viewed my story, thank you. If you enjoy it let me know. I swear I'm not as much of an ass as I sound lol.

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...Jack:

Jack had been put on guard duty of Jamie and his family as a precaution in case Pitch decided to attack Jamie. However upon Jack's arrival to Jamie's house he hadn't known about this new person in Jamie's family until he had sat outside the dining room window and listened to the conversation within between Jamie's mother and said girl. Apparently this was an out of state cousin, who had lost her mother and father, and this particular cousin in their family looked nothing like the Bennett family. The girl named Scotty, recently turned eighteen and graduated from High School earlier that year if he'd caught the conversation right from last night, looked nothing like the other Bennett's when it came to facial shape.

Scotty was pale with an upturned nose covered in freckles that splashed out onto her cheeks lightly. She had gray colored eyes, and she had an oblong shaped face compared to the Bennett's rounded heart shaped faces. She also rarely slept and ate, apparently, if this morning was anything to take note of. Jack almost couldn't believe the girl was functioning on 3 hours of sleep.

As Jamie had bolted out the front door Jack started to follow immediately as Jamie was shortly joined by the cousin. She caught up to him in seconds with her long strides compared to her cousin's shorter ones. Jack smiled as he jumped from lamppost to lamppost when Scotty caught her cousin and lifted him off the ground. Jack waved to the kids who saw him as he watched Scotty act like an older relative should, full of fun and games. She turned Jamie upside down and walked a few feet with him laughing the entire time before Scotty righted him and lugged him at her side across the crosswalk, Jamie in hysterical laughter the entire time. Jack landed next to them after they crossed the street and Jamie, ever watchful of the Guardians, gasped in a breath and struggled to be released from his cousin's grasp.

Jamie mouthed a 'Hi' to Jack, to which he replied out loud with a, "Hey Jamie."

Jamie grinned, tugging on Scotty's jacket sleeve to garner her attention, and got excited when he started telling her of the adventures from a year and a half ago. Scotty seemed pretty distant through the conversation, probably chalking the event up to a child's imagination, and laughed when he told her about how he had his friends fought back the Boogeyman named Pitch.

"How much sugar did you have this morning?" Scotty asked, looking down at Jamie as they waited for the crosswalk.

"None, I swear!" Jamie jumped with joy. "But Scotty, do you remember when you visited when I was six and told me that story about the Will O'Wisps?"

Scotty nodded and started them into motion again as another crosswalk told them to go. "It was a story Da told me."

Jack walked next to them, interested in the conversation himself. He'd only heard of the Wisps once or twice. One such occasion had been earlier last night when North had mentioned to Jack, as the Guardians were about to leave last night, that the little things had assisted Kristy out of the freezing Arctic to find her way to his workshop. Course they hadn't done much more than show her the way. North still had to nurse her back to health and ensure that she was well enough to even return back to the real world. Luckily for North, Kristy had wanted to stay with him, and both of them seemed extremely happy together.

Jack tuned back into the conversation, his thoughts flowing by as fast as his wind carried him.

"Didn't you say those helped you find your way home after the fire?" Jamie asked.

Jack both saw and felt an invisible wall go up around Scotty. Her once relaxed demeanor turned stiff and her face darkened considerably. She let out an aggravated sound and shook her head no in response to the question.

"No, Jamie that was the Cops." She crossed her arms, guarding herself in a way Jack had seen in himself once or twice, except he usually put his hood up on his light blue hoodie. "Remember, I told you it was nothing more than a story Da told me."

"So you don't believe in things like that?" Jamie asked, clearly deflated by this news.

Scotty shook her head. "No, Jamie. You'll realize pretty soon that those stories are nothing more than stories."

Jamie stepped back from Scotty, bumping into Jack next to him and outright glaring at Scotty. "They are not!"

Scotty looked up towards the sky, her long hair in a thick braid that fell to between her shoulder blades on her back, and made it look as if her thick hair had suddenly become a weight to Jack as she righted her head to look forward again. It was a true sign of exasperation. "Yes, Jamie, they are stories! Why do you think they're under the Fiction section of the Library?"

"Jack Frost is standing right here!" Jamie burst out, his face turning red with anger. Jamie motioned towards Jack.

"Who is Jack Frost? That's the second time I've heard that name since I got here and I'm starting to worry that it might be something contagious." Scotty replied, taking Jamie by the shoulder, gently, and leading him towards the school.

Jack was affronted by her response, yet he could understand why Scotty didn't believe in him or the other Guardians. He hadn't either until he'd awoken as Jack Frost, and often wondered why nobody had been there to protect him and his sister. Scotty also seemed a little lost to him, not quite able to find herself, and he knew that feeling too. He'd been lost as well when he'd awoken as Jack Frost, unaware that he'd even had a family. Jack put himself into Scotty's shoes, thinking about how hard it would've been to have watched his sister fall into the lake instead of himself and having to live with that after. If he'd heard the conversation that Jamie's parents had last night right then Scotty was living with a burden similar to what Jack's sister would have had to live with. Jack, noticing that Jamie and his cousin had walked ahead of him by a good distance, and he caught up to Jamie and set a hand on his shoulder.

"Jamie, it's alright." He said looking in front of them and seeing the behemoth of a teen that the Man in the Moon had shown the guardians earlier step from the alley to impede their path. "Jamie—"

It was too late; before Jack had time to react the behemoth named Mitch was towering over Jamie and his cousin Scotty.

...Mitch:

Mitch sneered at Jamie and glanced at whoever stood next to him, not really caring about the small girl. Mitch leaned down in front of Jamie and held out his large hand.

"Lunch money, kid." Mitch said, pleasant yet demanding. His demeanor resembled calm before a storm.

Mitch took pride in seeing the kid's brown eyes become large with fear. He expected the kid to start reaching into his pockets for the money, until the chick he'd barely glanced at stepped in front of him and instead of placing money in his hand, shook Mitch's out held hand. Mitch winced at the grip she had on his hand, which was squeezing all the right soft spots of his hand.

"Mitchy, boy, you've gotten big." Mitch straightened and struggled to pull his hand back from the all-too-familiar Scotty Bennett, the family member of the Bennett family that nobody really spoke about or to.

"Scotty." Mitch said shortly. "Still the black sheep of the family?"

Scotty glanced at her nails and began to pick at the chipping nail polish on them. "Yep, and proud of it. You still struggling with your Math, English, and History homework? Oh and how's the runaway trophy mom and drunken failure of a dad?"

Mitch ground his teeth. Scotty had dropped by once or twice, usually during the summer months, and had always been a thorn in Mitch's side. She was incessantly flippant when it came to his threats, constantly outwitting him, and to his greatest disappointment, hadn't died in that fire with her parents. Essentially, Mitch hated her because for all of his bulk and strength, she never seemed to fear him. Oh, and her family still accepted her, cursed as she was with being the only family member to survive the house fire.

Mitch smirked, thinking about the fire that had taken her parents, and reached into his back pocket for his lighter. He flicked the thing right in her face and expected her to jump back, like the last time, but the irritatingly fearless girl just blew out the flame and crossed her arms.

"Nice trick, Mitch, but I've grown out of that fear." Scotty looked over at the elementary school across the street and Mitch looked as well, watching as Jamie passed through the double doors as the warning bell rang, alerting the kids that school was about to begin. "But now since Jamie is safely inside the school ground and you have to go to that drab High School of yours that has held you back twice now in—" she looked towards the clock inside the shop next to them, "ten minutes, I suggest you get moving."

Mitch, absorbing this quick tangent from Scotty, looked blankly at where Jamie had indeed snuck off into. He openly fumed in front of Scotty, who snickered like she always did when she outwitted him, and then in his blind rage he reached for her. She ducked quickly under his arm, her five foot six frame easily dodging between his gorilla like arms, and ran off into the forested area just down the street.

Mitch punched the garbage bin next to him, the metal creaking from the impact, and he set off after the annoyingly swift Scotty. Mitch also had no idea that Jack Frost, appraising Scotty for her bravery, followed after them on the brisk wind that chased them.

...Pitch:

Pitch emerged from the shadow of the alley, intangible to all the people that walked the streets, with his usual sneer set in place. He walked out from the alley and stood where the annoyingly fearless Scotty had just faced his chosen miscreant Mitch without as much as a flinch. He looked over at the garbage bin and noticed the dent the size of Mitch's fist, and reminisced about the conversation.

Mitch had mentioned something along the lines of 'black sheep' and the whole ordeal with the lighter was a curious subject that Pitch wanted to find out more about. If this Scotty character had a phobia of, if Pitch was guessing right, fire then this entire adventure was about to get even more interesting. Pitch set off after Mitch, Scotty, and the annoying Jack Frost. Pitch needed to reign in Mitch and get this story out of him. Phobias were the thing that still kept him in some power, and if he harnessed that fear right he found it was a powerful force to be reckoned with. It sounded as if this Scotty, who seemed fearless, did have something she hid below what appeared to be a stubborn front. Pitch called his Nightmare and got on it, rushing after Mitch in particular.

Pitch caught up fairly quickly, staying out of sight from Frost by keeping to well forested areas, and ducked into the cave that Mitch had gone into. Pitch stopped in the entrance of the cave and looked back, watching Scotty carefully and shook his head in disbelief as she climbed down from one of the tall trees and ducked back towards the town, probably snickering the entire time since she had outwitted Mitch twice within thirty minutes. Pitch also watched as Frost followed her back, that annoyingly mischievous smile plastered on his face.

As Pitch went into the cave he watched as Mitch angrily threw a rock into the wall, the echoing of the smack carrying for what felt like miles. He watched Mitch growl, turn, and then jump when Pitch stood in front of him. Pitch literally looked down his nose at Mitch, his silvery eyes glittering with both disappointment and anger, and then he felt the delicious fear seeping off Mitch as the Nightmare crept up next to Pitch. Pitch let out a breath of exasperation and shook his head.

"That wasn't your finest moment, Mitch." Pitch relaxed his straight stance, figuring he'd be able to get more information out of Mitch if Mitch's guard dropped as well.

Mitch nodded. "I know. That Scotty chick is just to irritating!" He huffed another breath and cracked his right knuckle. "I mean, her parents died in a fire, how is she not a push over!?"

Pitch looked at Mitch. Mitch should already know the answer to that question. Strong people were usually born from torn pasts. Sucking in a breath to ease his anger at Mitch's stupidity, Pitch appraised Mitch for a few seconds before holding out his right hand and waving for Mitch to stop his rant that he had apparently been on.

"Do start from the beginning of this story." Pitch commanded Mitch.

Mitch did. He told Pitch about how the Bennett son, the favorite of the family, had abandoned the family business in order to chase after a Scottish girl he'd met while on a family vacation. Pitch learned about how the son had taken the woman's name over his own and essentially how the grandfather, who'd been dead for fifteen years now, had disowned the father and never acknowledged the grandchild, Scotty. Mitch then said that on the night that Scotty turned ten; a fire had started in her home and seemed to engulf it entirely in minutes.

It was then that Pitch heard the tone in Mitch's voice shift and Pitch's eyes widened. He looked at Mitch, who had a very pleased look to his face and his eyes glittered within that shadowed stern face with pride. Pitch smirked at the kid, catching on real quick to how the fire had happened.

"You set the fire, didn't you?" Pitch asked, no longer questioning his choice when it came to a companion for the time being.

Mitch nodded, a wicked grin spreading over his face. "Of course I did, they went out for a family outing that took an entire day. It gave me enough time to set everything I needed to without them being aware of it. So when they tucked themselves into bed that night I tossed a lit match through Scotty's window and watched the fun." Mitch snicker came and went as quick as it appeared and he deflated into an angry individual when he then said, "Also that Scotty girl is a little shit who somehow still obtained a family even though the Grandfather disowned her father. The Grandfather, after the fire, finally recognized Scotty as his grandchild. Not only that, but that busy body of a Grandmother kept up with the family and whenever they showed up into town they were greeted warmly. I hate Scotty; she's the luckiest bitch I've ever met!"

Pitch laughed heartily at the teen. He was damaged, but so full of potential.

"Mitch, get her to come to the bonfire we have planned tonight. Act as sweet as you can, and as soon as we finish your transformation you can burn her into a charred corpse for all I care." Pitch slapped the teen on the shoulder warmly and walked him towards the dark wall, shifting through it with the teen next to him as they entered into his Shadow realm to prepare


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

Alright so I've somewhat recovered today and sorta back into my usual self. Here's chapter 4 \(^_^)/. Thank you for the views if nothing else? I have no idea if anybody is reading lol.

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...Guardians:

Night had fallen and North was in his sleigh traversing the night sky with Bunny, who still clung to the seats like a cat over water, Sandy, and Tooth with him. They were set to meet just outside of Jamie's block on the first apartment building rooftop. North saw Jack balancing along the now snow covered edge of the roof, pacing the edge in a way that was familiar to teens. North gave the reindeers a command and shortly after seeing Jack, North had the sleigh parked and the Guardians were meeting to discuss and catch up.

"So how's Jamie?" Tooth asked in her usual hyper demeanor.

Jack smiled and shrugged. "He's good; actually, he's really good." Jack nodded towards Jamie's roof, which sported the cousin Scotty sitting at the open window of the attic reading even though it was a good three hours past bedtime. "She proved to be a good bully deterrent today."

Bunny jumped forward, pulling out his boomerang and holding it under Jack's nose in a threatening way that wasn't directed in any way at Jack in particular. "Who has the gall to pick on Jamie?"

Jack smirked at Bunny's protective nature for Jamie and nodded towards Tooth. "Remember that Mitch kid? Yea, he's chosen Jamie and a few other kids to be his personal money dispensers."

Everybody noted the disapproval in Jack's voice. Sandy made signs over his head, too quick for Jack to keep up with again. North chuckled at Jack's face as it contorted into confusion at the images.

"Sandy wanted to know if you did anything to help." North crossed his arms, sure in the fact that Jack helped.

Jack grinned. "I didn't have to." He motioned at the teen that looked over at a clock on the wall in her room. "She handled it like a pro."

North leaned to the right and frowned. "She did?" He rubbed his beard. "Jack, she is close to you on Naughty list."

Jack gaped at North; he couldn't grasp how someone who'd shown that much strength today against fear was on the Naughty list. "What? Why?"

"She stole many a things while first starting off." North began, and Tooth cut in.

"I remember her!" She shouted excitedly. "Oh she was a doll as a kid. Then she moved in with that Aunt of hers and started acting out against her…" Tooth trailed off, a look of sorrow on her face. "Poor darling lost her parents in a fire, forced to grow up at a young age as she left her Aunt's home and never quite recovered."

"So that actually did happen? The fire, that is?" Jack asked, turning to see that the teen had vanished from the window and said window was closed with a trail leading towards the tree by the house. "Where'd she go?"

North gathered his attention. "Do not worry, she can fend for self. We need to focus on Pitch."

Jack opened his mouth to pry out more information on Scotty when Bunny burst in, "I haven't seen Pitch since we beat him a good one last Spring."

Jack listened to the Guardians, but they weren't his most prominent thoughts. He wanted to know just what Scotty had done that had landed her close to him on the Naughty list. She'd seemed like an alright teenager, at least to Jack. He leaned on the edge of the roof, looking down to see her footsteps leading out towards the forest. He straightened when he saw a bright orange flame kick up in the distance.

"Jack!" Bunny shouted at him, garnering his attention again.

"What!?" He shouted back, irritated that the Kangaroo had interrupted his thoughts and curiosity.

"Watch it, mate." Bunny pointed a downward facing boomerang at him and bounced the deadly weapon, at least in his hands, in warning. "Have you seen Pitch?"

Jack shook his head, turning his back on the fire in the distance and focusing instead on the Guardians.

...Scotty:

Scotty watched her breath trickle out of her as she walked the street from earlier, heading towards the spot where she'd been invited to a local Winter bonfire. Apparently all the Teenagers did it here; it was part of some longstanding tradition. The bonfire was ages sixteen through eighteen only, with loud music and beer. Scotty originally tended to stick to herself. Especially after her incident at sixteen that involved a head on collision of Grandpa's Ferrari into a tree trunk coming from this very event. However Scotty figured she needed to branch out and at least have some contact with people in town. So, she'd better suck it up and go.

Scotty rounded a corner and cut across the street, the night empty of falling flakes, but the ground was covered to at least half a foot in depth. Scotty made it into the wooded area and followed the bright orange light of the bonfire. It was centered near a cave and people had apparently already been celebrating this event before she arrived. Teens younger than her were stumbling over themselves and slurring greetings as a few of them recognized her from the short visits during the summer. She talked to a few individuals whose pupils were dilated from some alcohol, but weren't entirely gone, and was lead towards where the keg of beer sat near the cave.

Scotty set up her mental wall as she approached Mitch, who was grinning at her maliciously as he stood from the back of an old pickup truck. "Scotty, you made it!"

Scotty scoffed; taking the beer he held out in a freshly opened bottle and remembered how sincere he had been earlier when he'd caught her on the way towards the Elementary school to pick up Jamie. "Sure. Thanks for the beer."

Scotty was hesitant to drink it, mainly because she really had to do a few tricks to get back into the attic. That is if she didn't want to get caught or freeze to death outside. She mingled with a few people, telling them a few stories of being all alone on the West coast and how she'd barely scraped by most of the time. Before she knew it everyone was clustering around her asking her questions and appraising her like she was the new toy in the shop. Scotty eventually started drinking the beer out of a social habit, tossing the empty bottle into the recycle bag and accepting another.

The night carried on late into the early morning, by which one of the more sober kids shouted out that it was two in the morning and to start wrapping up the party. Scotty tossed her second beer into the recycle bag and put her hands into her pockets A chorus of cheers sounded from behind her as she started walking off in what she thought was the direction of the elementary school, which would lead to her Aunt's house. She straightened sharply when she heard the screams echo from behind her, a bright fire glowing and diminishing in quick succession. She heard people scream and yell as that bright ball of fire headed right for where she was.

Scotty sucked in a sharp breath as she dodged the ball of flame and looked for somewhere to run. She took a sharp right and ran through the snow, which was a trick for someone who'd never been in the snow before. She ducked branches, dodged rocks, and even slid across thin ice before it broke under her weight. The mass of fire was a bright orange light that constantly kept at her heels, but it seemed to stall a little while it tracked her, which kept Scotty from completely losing her mind and going catatonic in fear.

Scotty ran forward, glancing over her shoulder at the figure, and felt the snow below her right foot slide out from under her. She tumbled, roughly, down a steep hill and smacked her head against a solid object. She felt the snow cover her before she passed out from the impact.

...Guardians:

The Guardians, who had still been having a meeting on the roof, were just about to disperse and leave Jack with Jamie when they all heard the terrified screams from the area where Jack had been looking earlier. North jumped into action, crossing rooftops as quickly as Bunny while Sandy, Tooth, and Jack flew next to them. The Guardians froze when they spotted Pitch; turning out the light on the bonfire the teens were having like it was nothing more than a match. The teens spread and scattered quickly, the shadows of dark horses chasing them and the threatening huffing of the Nightmares instilling fear in the teens, as Pitch's new Nightmares whined at them and chased them off through the woods.

North pulled out his scimitars preparing for the oncoming battle against Pitch. Pitch grinned at the lot of them, laughing heartily as he climbed onto a Nightmare that had bright orange flames licking its hoofs and sprouting from its nose.

"Ah there you are!" Pitch said with a grin. "I was waiting for you lot to catch up to me."

"Pitch, what are you up to this time? Or do you not remember the whooping we gave you last time, mate?" Bunny asked, his hands itching to toss the boomerangs at the pompous Nightmare King.

Pitch sneered at Bunny. "Of course I remember your defeat of me. It has festered like an infected wound for a year and a half." Pitch then straightened, a smile spreading across his face again. "However, I do believe I've found not only a stronger source of power in these adolescents, but I've gained a new ally as well." Pitch addressed Jack, in particular, when he said, "And he's doing a brilliant job ensuring that I'll have greater power in the future."

Jack stood for a moment, his staff held in his hands and ready to be used to attack Pitch, until he realized what Pitch was referring too. "Scotty."

Pitch laughed heartily. "Yes!" He snapped his finger and pointed at Jack and the Guardians. "She ought to be lost in the woods by now, chased by the very thing she fears most! Till next time, Guardians!"

The Guardians watched as Pitch took off into the cave, vanishing through the dark hole. The Guardians looked to one another, splitting up into groups of two and agreeing to meet back at the apartment roof when their search ended, and spread out to search for Scotty and any other lost teens.

North and Sandy covered the Northern and Eastern sections of the wooded area that surrounded the city. As they both disintegrated Nightmares they came across. Upon gathering a large group of teens up North and Sandy, deciding to make a game of the Nightmare destroying and teenager herding, pitched to each other their totals upon arrival at the designated meeting spot. North was affronted when Sandy stated that he'd got a total of fifty while North had only got about thirty five. However, when it came to the teens gathered, North had come out ahead in a land slide.

As they gathered the teens they both searched the groups of teens for Scotty, not entirely sure what her features were except for the generalized description Jack had given them and the brief view they'd had of her from her window, which wasn't entirely clear. However, North and Sandy didn't find Scotty but were able to safely herd the teenagers from the woods and towards their homes. North and Sandy were the first to return to the roof and waited impatiently for the others to return as the early morning hours passed.

Tooth and Bunny had taken to running the Southern section of the woods. They had, in the process of destroying the many Nightmares that had shifted forms to accommodate the teenager's fears, managed to find a few more teens. They too, through their intangible nature to these older individuals, had somehow herded them all together again and managed to show them the way back into the safe confines of the city. They both didn't like that they essentially had to herd the kids through scare tactics, but it got the teens to go in the right direction. They returned to the roof as well, taking note that Scotty hadn't been in their group either.

"Where are Jack and Baby Tooth?" Tooth asked as she watched the skyline brightening.

"Do not worry, they will return unharmed." North replied, his pacing making Tooth nervous even though she believed his words rang true.

Sandy sat on the sleigh seat and twiddled his thumbs in his lap, standing shortly after the arrival of Bunny and Tooth. He decided of his own will to go in search of Jack and Baby Tooth after waiting for an hour. He was followed, however, by the Guardians. They set off into the West after Jack and Baby Tooth.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

I'm thinking about changing the rating on this story to **T**, so if you are following this story and are interested in continuing to read then please start checking the **T** rating area for it! I'm doing this because it isn't too dark of a story and my language is fairly restrained. I will be uploading it in the **T** section by the end of tonight! However, outside of that its a long chapter. Enjoy.

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Jack and Baby Tooth flew through the air with a speed to which Jack hadn't even thought he could do. He and her both were agitated, finding no signs of Scotty at all in their two passes over this section of the wooded area. Jack soon landed onto the snow covered ground and swung his staff in an irritated circle. He let out a yell full of frustration and hunched over, putting his staff across his knees and leaning forward.

Baby Tooth, with her bi-colored purple and blue eyes, pleaded with Jack to keep clam through a series of chirps. Jack straightened, gave a weak smile to Baby Tooth, and carried on. Poor Baby Tooth was just as frustrated as Jack was. If her eyes, wide with panic like Jack's were, was anything to go by. However the duo carried on, choosing to take a low ground route, which would require some hiking, to see if it would prove to be of better use than their flying in the air route had been. Baby Tooth had started off perched on Jack's shoulder when they'd began the hike and was looking around desperately with Jack as he briskly walked through the forest. However as Jack would begin to break out into short running spurts, Baby Tooth would choose to fly in the air next to his head. Jack broke into a sprint in spurts every few minutes, for a good ten to twenty minutes, before Baby Tooth gave Jack's hoodie a quick tug.

Jack turned his head staring at the scorched wood that Baby Tooth was frantically flitting towards on one of the trees. He looked up from the hand shaped burn in the wood of the tree and saw that it lead in a line through the woods. Jack looked at Baby Tooth, who nodded even if she did seem slightly scared, and followed the markings on foot. Jack and Baby Tooth shrugged through a line of trees and stumbled out into a meadow that was, essentially, clear of trees. Jack halted when he looked towards a meadow clear of snow. He stepped forward carefully, Baby Tooth hiding in his hoodie, and stared at the melted areas of snow where the rounded circle seemed to end.

"I just covered this area earlier with snow yesterday, and it's just this section that's melted." Jack muttered this more to himself than anyone else before he heard a noise behind him.

He straightened and stood, readying his staff for what he was going to assume was Pitch, and stared instead at Mitch, except it wasn't quite Mitch anymore. Mitch was now a hulking inferno, his skin was a healthy glowing tan and he wore fire torched clothes that were the color of fire itself. Mitch grinned at Jack, fire dancing off of him as he stepped towards Jack and melted the snow in his patch and scorching anything he touched. Jack stepped back carefully when he felt the heat exuding off of Mitch and not entirely sure how he was going to deal with a walking inferno that was melting his snow in what seemed like seconds.

Baby Tooth chirped from his hoodie and sounded scared. Jack steadied his resolve and jumped to make the first move. He'd landed a few quick jabs with his staff; freezing limbs when he could, only to have the ice melt within seconds of appearing. It had started off as a fairly good fight, Mitch not having a good grasp on his powers and fumbling once or twice in the beginning as Jack easily covered him with snow or froze this heated behemoth in place. But as the fight carried on, all of Jack's little tricks were wearing off as quickly as they were appearing. Mitch was getting a better grasp of his powers.

Mitch gave Jack a good, solid, right hook that sent him into a tree and knocked the wind out of him. Jack shook his head, smelled his snow white hair burn from the touch. Jack, gasping as he realized Baby Tooth was still in his hood, felt around for the small little hummingbird figure. Jack sighed in relief when he found that Baby Tooth had indeed shot off in the beginning of the fight to continue the search for Scotty. He was relieved at the sight of her bright twinkling of green feathers was her, especially when he glanced up and saw Baby Tooth flitting above him and Mitch.

Jack straightened and winced as his back gave a sharp sting from the most recent impact with the tree, and once again would use the tree to steady himself for another attack from Mitch. However, no matter how good Jack was with his snow powers, Mitch was a behemoth of a fire giant that could not only melt his snow but beat him around with pure strength as well. Jack glanced around him, noticing that the open meadow had turned into more forested area, and he tumbled back just in time to freeze the water under his foot.

Jack tumbled out onto a babbling brook; once again this area had been melted from Mitch's intense heat, and now freezing over again as Jack steadied himself on it. He sucked in a sharp breath, feeling out gunned and weak for the first time in centuries. He took a retreating step back as Mitch cockily stepped forward onto the now snow cleared bank of the river. Jack watched in horror as the brook began to unfreeze as Mitch stepped onto it. Steam rose from the ground and Jack jumped when Pitch's laughed echoed in the brightening morning rays that reflected off the steam.

Pitch came from behind a tree, still on one of his Nightmares, and grinned down at Jack. "So, Jack, how do you like my newest recruit? Quite impressive isn't he?" Pitch dismounted from the steed and paced behind Mitch who was grinning at Jack. "He melts your little ice tricks faster than you can make them, and if you try to use your strength he bats you around like an annoying fly."

Jack took in a shaky breath, his body actually sore from the literal beating he'd been facing. He looked around; steadying himself for something he'd never thought he'd ever have to do in his life. He watched Pitch and Mitch, noticed that they'd both gained a fair amount of strength to which he couldn't compete with alone, and decided that he needed to retreat and regroup with the Guardians.

Mitch stepped forward into the stream that immediately began to boil the water and melt the small amounts of ice that Jack had made, and with one last hurrah, Jack sent up a ball of ice from his staff. Jack made the ball of ice explode in the air like that of a flare, the air that held the snowflakes steaming from the combination of hot and cold.

Pitch chuckled and Mitch continued to advance, at least until they saw Sandy's yellow cloud approaching them from the distance. Then Pitch set his hand on Mitch's shoulder and told him, "Time to go."

Jack fell to his knees on the ice that his presence on the water was causing and watched as the ice grew around him on the pond as Mitch and Pitch both retreated back, clearly proud of themselves. Jack sighed in relief as the ice made him realize that he was safe from both Pitch and Mitch with the Guardians arrival. Shortly upon standing, the Guardians arrived; a second too late before Pitch vanished, and faced they cold hard fact of the breaking day. Pitch had won this round and they hadn't managed to find Scotty either.

Scotty's consciousness came to her in a blur. All she really knew is that she was cold, her head was sore as hell, and she was having a hard time breathing from a weight on her chest. Scotty had a hard time getting her thoughts and body to move until she heard a strong, ordering, voice that sounded vaguely familiar.

_Get moving, child_.

Scotty, testing her limbs for movement, found that she could at least attempt to dig herself out of the snow pile she woke in. She pushed the snow from herself, clawing at the ground as she pulled herself out of the rest, and laid face down in the snow as the world spun circles in her mind.

_Good. Now stand up_.

Scotty hiccuped, tasting vomit at the back of her throat, and eased herself back down onto the snow. She sighed in relief as her head, or at least the sore side of her head, touched the cold snow. Scotty felt the warmth of the sun through a few trees, but the absolute cold that encompassed her urged her to get moving again along with that thing telling her to stand up. Scotty sucked in a steadying breath and pushed herself up from the ground, groaning as the world spun yet again. She winced as she heard some combination of a chirping squeaking sound above her head and the fast fluttering of what sounded like a humming bird, and gave up the contents of her stomach as the small patch of snow with some grass sticking through it took a sick twist.

_Get moving, now. You've got things to do and people to help. MOVE._

Scotty stood after heaving at least twice, even with a somewhat empty stomach, and steadied herself against a tall tree after shakily standing. She gasped in a breath, the energy she needed to expel to move her body was a little too high for her liking and as she began to remember things from last night she remembered one key problem, she was lost. Scotty was about ready to fall to her knees again when she heard a sighing noise. Scotty felt a cold sweat break over her body as she turned her head to the right.

_Follow them, sweetie. They'll take you to safety._

There they were again, just like they had been when she was younger and had ran off into the woods as her family's house burned to the ground. Scotty gritted her teeth and pushed herself off the tree, her steps lethargic and heavy as she followed the little blue glowing smoke ball. She stumbled once or twice possibly more, hell she couldn't remember, and was urged on when she heard both the sighing of the wisps in front of her and that damndable squeaking hummingbird above her. She fell to her knees, huffing and puffing out chilled breaths as her cold and wet clothes began to make her shiver.

_Get up…come on…Yes, that's it. You can do it._

She pushed herself once more onto her feet, stumbling hard into a tree and gripped its sturdy form. She waited for the world to stop spinning and continued on, hearing what sounded like five people having a heated conversation in the woods. She heard fast wings, a shout from one of the five voices, and watched as the wisps vanished from in front of her.

_Go to them honey. They'll help you in more ways than one._

Steeling herself for an explanation that she was sure would sound crazy, Scotty saw the five figures emerge from the bushes in front of her. She gaped at Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, Sandman, Easter Bunny, and a white haired guy about her age in a frost covered hoodie all have a look of relief on their faces upon spotting her.

"What the-?" Scotty managed to get out before the head injury with exhaustion pushed her body over the edge and she collapsed in front of the Guardians.

Pitch chuckled with glee as he circled the globe in his shadow realm. Mitch had proven to be a valuable asset to his operation. Mitch had turned into more than that after watching him fight that infuriating Jack Frost. Pitch stopped as Mitch emerged from the shadows, a wide grin on his face.

"Did you accomplish your goal?" Pitch asked the teenager who he'd imbued with temporary fire powers, his own personal elemental Fearling.

Mitch nodded enthusiastically. "Yea. It was absolutely amazing watching that wreck of a house go up in flames brighter than anything I'd ever seen."

Pitch nodded and turned back to the globe. Shortly after testing Mitch against Jack, Pitch had sent Mitch to his home. Pitch had given Mitch one simple instruction: Burn it to the ground. Pitch brought up the image on the globe of the spot in question and smiled as the firemen, families, and children all exuded fear. Pitch chuckled, sucking in a sharp breath of strength, and pinpointed all their fears. He turned towards his Nightmares and sent them to the area with simple orders to wait till tonight. The fear of fire would haunt their dreams tonight, and if the Nightmares could stop Sandy's dream sand from reaching the kids Pitch's strength would grow two fold.

"Fire will engulf their nightmares tonight." Pitch muttered, beginning his pacing hack and forth in front of the globe.

Mitch laughed behind him. "When do I get to burn the Bennett home down?"

Pitch stopped his pacing and frowned. Jamie Bennett and his little annoying friends as well, were his to capture and torture for last Spring's defeat. Pitch shook his head at Mitch, figuring he could dissuade the kid from this thought process.

"I don't care if you burn the Bennett girl, but you leave that Jamie child and his little friends for me." Pitch replied, turning back to the globe and focusing in on the girl Mitch had been referring too.

Mitch towered behind Pitch. "What? Why can't I burn their house to the ground?"

Pitch turned quickly, anger climbing from him faster than he thought possible and grabbed Mitch's power from him quick as a flick of his wrists. "Do not touch anyone until I tell you too. Just because I gave you this power does not mean you are permanently powerful."

Mitch frowned at Pitch; his fear of losing that power Pitch had given him palpable in the room and attracted the attention of the Nightmare in their presence. Mitch stepped back from the Nightmare, powerless and completely at the thing's mercy, and backed up into the wall of the shadow realm. The Nightmare huffed at Mitch about to pummel him with its hoofs before Pitch eased in front of it, gently patting the nose of his little creation to calm it.

"Now, Mitch, don't get too exuberant with your powers. You are still at my mercy, which gives me power over you." Pitch chuckled, easing the Nightmare away from the kid. Pitch gave the flames back over to Mitch, who happily embraced them once again. "Now, step two is going to be a little trickier. We need to weaken these Guardians."

Mitch went forward from his huddled position against the wall and stood just behind Pitch. "What're we going to do?"

Pitch smirked and rubbed his jaw. "Simple, really. I'm going to ship you over to the fairy enclosure with my Nightmares and once again stall that damned Tooth."

"How's that going to help?" Mitch asked, looking at the Tooth fairy's bright and colorful floating open air palace with little birds flittering to and from it that Pitch had brought up on the globe.

"Well we need it more for a distraction." Pitch began. "If you're successful, then I'll be able to implant into that Scotty girl the fear of fire again without having to worry about those Guardians intruding since all of them will be needed to gather the teeth at night."

"But what if we don't do as much of a distraction as you want?" Mitch asked, stepping back from Pitch as he turned around.

Pitch seemed to not care about the answer to that, waving it off. "It won't matter. If we distract those fairies for long enough, teeth won't be collected and we'll eliminate Tooth from the picture because she and those Guardians have to work overtime themselves in order to play catch up in the early morning hours."

"After that?" Mitch asked carefully, following this train of thought.

"After that? Well, I spend the following night gathering all the fear I'd be able to muster from within that girl Scotty and the various kids of your little fire earlier. From there I figure an attack of the North Pole, destroying toys, Yetis and Elves as I take the place by force." Pitch replied simply. "Of course, you'll be yet another distraction as you keep the Guardians busy while I take the Pole."

Mitch nodded. "I never liked Christmas anyway."

Pitch chuckled. "My dear Mitch, nobody on our side of the field has ever liked Christmas."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

Author note: Okay so I've moved this from the M rating to the T. Sure I slip up here and there with language, but it's nothing awful. Nor is there anything really bad that happens, just a little dark :] I discussed it with my editor pssnangel4 and we both decided it would probably fit better in the T category. Enjoy further readings!

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...Guardians:

The Guardians had been talking about Mitch, Pitch's new assistant that he was toting around and assisting Pitch in his nefarious deeds. This assistant named Mitch, imbued with fire powers that matched that of an inferno, would be a difficult being to handle along with Pitch, who was playing the field carefully. The Guardians were in for a handful, and Christmas was closing in quickly.

"He started off weak at first," Jack had begun after the Guardians had arrived and they'd gathered back into the clearing of the meadow that Jack's battle had originally began in. "I don't even think the guy knew what his powers were exactly until he started to get mad at me beating him. After that I felt the heat flowing off of him and anything I threw at him melted as fast as I threw it."

North gave Jack a reassuring pat on the shoulder, which made Jack wince. "Sorry. Forgot you took one too many tumbles."

Jack nodded, his thoughts snapping to the physical aspect of the battle. "That's the other thing. If I stopped and turned to using brute force, that guy easily has me out muscled. I also didn't want to hit him with my staff." Jack looked at his staff and winced, the image of snapping it in half over Mitch's head one he didn't particularly like, "He looks like the impact would do nothing to him, and completely ruin my staff in the process." Jack shook his head in confusion. "I don't know how to beat this guy. I can't use my powers on him since he's running such a high temperature and he was batting me around like I was a softball if I turned to physical attacks."

Bunny had been listening in, stepping forward after Jack finished. "So let's take a positive look at this situation, mates. From what Jack tells us, the kid doesn't actually have a given power, exactly. At least not in our sense of power that is. If I saw right, when Pitch and the Mitch kid had turned tail into the forest, the kid had lost some of his spark. That means that Pitch's new crony isn't entirely up to par with his powers. Nor do I think his powers are permanent, possibly nothing more than a Fearling to Pitch, which is good news for us." Bunny paced over to the scorched wood of the tree that Mitch had passed by. "The kid's probably nothing more than a pawn to distract us from what Pitch is actually doing."

North nodded his head. "Aye, but he is good pawn."

Sandy nodded in agreement. Above his head an image of a fire, houses, and chaos all appeared over his head. He shook his entire being and more images fluttered past.

"Calm down Sandy." North told him, crossing his arms so that his Naughty and Nice tattoos showed proudly from under his long red coat sleeves. "We will figure out a good way to stamp out Pitch's new minion and also figure out what exactly Pitch is up to as soon as we can."

Tooth gasped suddenly, her eyes widening. "What about Scotty!? We never found her."

"Oi, I forgot about her." Bunny muttered.

Jack, North, and Sandy all nodded in agreement. It was then Jack's turn to have his eyes widen. Scotty wasn't the only one missing.

"Where'd Baby Tooth go!?" Jack turned in a quick circle and gave a loud shout into the forest.

"You lost her!? Again!?" Tooth squeaked out, darting the rim of the small field they now stood in. "Baby Tooth!"

Jack shook his head. In the chaos of the fight against that inferno he'd totally forgotten that Baby Tooth had bailed out of his hood the second he'd started getting physical against the brute. He turned in circles, hoping to hear the chirping of the small little fairy. Tooth stopped circling and put her hands over her mouth, worry bringing tears to her eyes.

North, still standing still with his arms crossed, finally moved. He patted Tooth on the shoulder, as he had with Jack, with just as calm of a demeanor as he'd been having this entire time. "Relax; we all know Baby Tooth is fine."

Tooth looked sharply at North. North simply grinned at her and shrugged.

"We know she's alright. She survived last time against Pitch." Bunny replied to try to calm Tooth's nerves. "Little scraper stuck it good to Pitch at the South Pole, remember."

Tooth nodded, her body language showing how tense she still was, and flitted back into the circle. The Guardians all let out a collective sigh before Bunny's ears twitched and he bolted through their gathered circle. He sat up on his feet, much like a Kangaroo, his ears twitching to the sides as his eyes roamed the woods. The Guardians all gathered in a semicircle behind him, each of them brandishing their weapons and ready for a fight as they heard a rustling in the woods. They tensed as they heard sighing noises that had a high pitch to them. Tooth gasped as Baby Tooth bolted from the bushes, unharmed, and frantically started pointing towards the bush. The Guardians all spotted the small little ball of blue flame that had more of a smoky look to it. They took in a collective breath.

"A wisp." North muttered curiously as he put away his weapons, followed shortly by a young girl of Jack's age stumbling through the wooded area.

The girl stood at the rim of the field, blinked a few times as her eyes roamed the beings in front of her, and then her mouth fell open as her dazed eyes glazed over.

"What the-?" She muttered as her legs gave out from under her.

All the Guardians winced as she fell forward, but Bunny was the first to recover and rushed over as she toppled forward after her dazed muttering. Bunny caught her just before she hit the ground. Bunny grunted as her weight toppled Bunny over, which allowed him to look backwards and call the Guardians over. North, having taken care of Kristy earlier that year, immediately checked the head wound that was black and blue with a thin trail of fresh blood falling from it and took in the head injury's proximity to her eye. She'd definitely have a black eye on her visible left eye when she woke up later today. He cracked both her eyes, watching them dilate as the sun's rays hit them, and nodded towards Jack.

"Get over here and apply cold to her head." North told him. "If I remember right it will help considerably."

Baby Tooth chippered away next to Tooth, who began to reply to the little fairy in just as quick succession. From the girl there was an audible groan of pain as Jack gently put his hand on her head followed quickly by a sigh of relief as his chilly hand applied cold to the area. Sandy came forward and began to work his magic on the teen, putting her into a healing sleep as Tooth stepped forward.

"Baby Tooth said she was under a pile of snow. It's probably why we weren't able to see her." Tooth began. "She also says that the wisps led her here and Baby Tooth heard something that was apparently pushing her forward to find us."

Sandy pointed an arrow to her clothes. He made raindrops over his head and filtered through a few more images that displayed them getting her home and out of the wet clothes.

North nodded in agreement. "Of course Sandy. We need to get her dry, warm, and clothed before we do anything more." North took the girl from Bunny's arms and hiked her up as he stood. "Come, we get her to Jamie's home."

...Scotty:

Scotty groaned, her head throbbing as she rolled over in her bed. She had all of five seconds to ponder how she'd got into bed after waking up cold in the woods before she had to crack an eye as she heard someone shouting her name. As she looked towards the ladder that lead to her room she heard and saw the attic's ladder be pulled down. She slowly sat up in her bed, looking around the room and grabbing her head as it pounded yet again. In the foggy thoughts that swirled in her brain she wondered once again, as she threw off the covers and took a tentative step off the bed to go over towards the ladder, how she got home.

Jamie poked his head up into the attic, a grin plastered on his face, and Scotty watched as that grin faltered as he took in her face. "Whoa, Jack wasn't kidding when he said your head was hurt."

Scotty winced. "Jack?" She shook her head slowly and rubbed the side of her head, wincing at the stinging pain that emanated after the touch there, as she paced towards the mirror in her bedroom. "Oh…"

Scotty stared at herself in the mirror. The left side of her head had a very visible goose egg that had lead to a visible black eye. Her first thought went to how lucky she was to have survived that fall with little more than a good bang to the head, but of course she'd have to look odd today as she found a way to hide that black eye and the goose egg from her Aunt and family. She puffed out a breath of air as Jamie held out something to her.

"Here, headache medicine." He passed the two Asprin off to Scotty, who took it and popped it into her mouth soon as it touched her palm and swallowed it dry. "So the Guardians want to know where you ran off too last night after Pitch had sent Mitch to scare you."

"Guardians? Pitch? Mitch?" Scotty muttered in quick succession, going into the bathroom and swallowing some tap water to ease the pills down her throat. "I have no idea what or who you're talking about. Also how'd you find the Asprin?"

Jamie stood in the doorway of her small bathroom, silent in response to her question, and watched as his cousin brushed her teeth, washed her face, and then combed her hair opposite of how she usually wore it to cover the nasty bruise on her head. He followed her across the small bedroom when she walked out of the bathroom and over to the small black bag that was zipped up and on her dresser.

"What's in there?" He asked, taking a place on her bed.

"Make up." Scotty replied in a daze. She went into the bathroom and put the bag down, grabbed her dress for the funeral after Jamie reminded her that they were heading there within the hour, and set about slowly getting dressed for today.

Scotty was in the bathroom for awhile, the door firmly shut, and barely paid any attention to the chatter that had suddenly risen from her bedroom as she showered. She finished applying make up to hide the bruising as best as she could after a quick shower and then dressed in the black dress she'd bought from a thrift store on a whim when she'd had the money for it a few years ago. She came out of the bathroom and tossed her bag onto the small dresser and headed to grab her black oxford style heels she'd bought the other day with Aunt Emily. She turned around and looked towards her bed.

She saw Jamie facing something on the bed as he sat Indian style and was actively talking to another person sitting in the same way. At first it looked as if Jamie was talking to air, and then Scotty heard a deep, yet young, male voice that wasn't Jamie's. Scotty shook her head, thinking she'd gone insane from the bump on the head. She took in a sharp breath and looked at the bed again after rubbing her eyes. As she stared at the spot Jamie was facing she slowly saw the guy with snow white hair, bright blue eyes, and that frost covered hoodie from earlier when she'd stumbled upon that clearing in her dazed state. The guy in question was sitting on her bed with his crooked staff across his lap. She was five seconds from screaming before Jamie stopped his idle chatter, sensed her panic and turned around just in time to rush off the bed.

"Don't scream!" He shouted at her, flailing at her with his arms spread wide.

Scotty cut off the scream that wanted to come from her throat and instead said, in one long unbroken stream of words, "Howlonghasthatguybeensitting onmybed?"

The guy in question smiled a smile that would've made high school girls swoon. Jamie looked over his shoulder at the guy and laughed nervously.

"Ah, Scotty meet Jack Frost." Jamie said, trying to ease his cousin's mind. "He's part of the group that found you this morning. You know, one of the good guys?"

Scotty's gaping mouth snapped shut as her brain started working overtime. Granted it was fuzzy and annoyingly slow, but as she thought about it more and more she remembered a lot of what had happened last night. Fear had got a good, solid, grip on her heart as she remembered the fire mass, which now that she thought about it looked more like a lumbering giant, chasing her through the woods. She then remembered running from it, more of a flight response that had hampered her sense of direction and led her to getting lost within the woods. She then gasped when she remembered falling and smacking her head. As she woke in that dazed state early this morning she remembered waking up to her Grandmother's persistent urging, telling her to move, and the little wisps telling her which direction to go.

She looked at the guy. The wisps had led her to this guy, who was really, really, cute, and to his companions in that open area of the forest. She pointed at him and looked to Jamie.

"Why can I suddenly see him?" Scotty asked. "He just kind of…I dunno…filtered into my vision just a few seconds ago."

Jamie looked to Jack, who then promptly shrugged and said, "Don't look at me. Remember, I just barely became visible to you kids. I have no idea how she can see me."

Scotty rubbed her head, feeling that pang of a headache coming back again and jumped when she heard the fluttering of wings rush into her small room. Scotty stopped breathing as a brightly colored feathered woman, who had similar feathers to a hummingbird, flew through her window with a miniature hummingbird like being with her. The woman in question looked to Scotty and smiled as she was followed by a gold sand covered man, the Sandman from earlier, the Easter bunny, and then none other than Santa Claus himself.

"Oh you're okay!" The woman of the group said in a high pitched voice. The woman zoomed over to look at Scotty's mouth, which was once again agape. "Oh and look, you didn't chip any of your teeth!"

Tooth was about to flutter forward and examine Scotty's teeth, but Scotty slapped her hand away as fast as Tooth reached out.

"No!" Scotty barked while flailing her hands at the woman like she was in a fish fight with her. "Don't even think about touching me, especially not with this headache. You guys aren't even supposed to be real!"

Jamie chuckled a little nervously from the bed that he'd curled up on again. "Scotty that woman is the Tooth Fairy."

"I don't care if she's the female version of Santa Claus. If _anybody_ touches me right now I swear I will stick their head on a pole medieval style." Scotty grumped as her head pounded and vision dipped. "Come on; let's get to the funeral so I can get back to bed."

...Pitch:

Pitch bit his lip, resisting the urge to laugh, as he watched Scotty slap Tooth's hands away. It served that annoying sprite right to have somebody actually physically shun her advances. Pitch found himself absently rubbing his jaw, the very side Tooth had hit so solidly that she knocked his back molar out. He chuckled.

"Mitch?" He asked over his shoulder. As he didn't get a response he then shouted, "Mitch!"

Pitch growled as the teen ignored his calls. He stepped through his shadow realm and began to search for the teen. He stopped when he heard the restful sounds of sleep from one of the chambers. Pitch stopped and took in a sleeping Mitch. He smirked and dropped off a nightmare for the kid to have in payment for falling asleep on the job, but continued on with his preparations for later today without the teen's help. They were going to attack Tooth's palace while she was babysitting with the other Guardians.

Soon as word would reach Tooth that her palace was under attack again Pitch would make his way to the injured Scotty, a slave to sleep thanks to that head wound of hers, and from her he'd gather power from her single phobia of fire and use it later that night to allow Mitch to light a few more house fires. After all, Mitch had proven to be well versed with his fire against that annoying Jack Frost, at least after the kid had got the hang of his powers.

Pitch chuckled again as he reached his globe and zoomed in on the North Pole and watched the Yetis work diligently while the Elves almost seemed to hamper the work the Yetis did as Christmas neared. Come a few days or so of gaining power from phobias and collecting it over a period of time, and Pitch would be back into a state of power that would make him a challenge again for those Guardians and would ensure that Christmas wouldn't come this year. Soon as he gained that power he planned on splitting the Guardians up and picking them off one by one. He smirked as he flipped to the image of Jamie.

Jamie and that annoying cousin of his were walking towards what looked to be a funeral. Pitch laughed as he remembered that old woman in particular from a month or so ago. She'd died with fear in her heart, a fear that the Scotty girl would lose contact with her family as she grew older and lose the importance of what went along with having a family, and had pleaded with Manny for a short referral from actual death. Pitch watched as the Grandmother's grayish form stood next to the Scotty girl. That grandmother had proven troublesome once already as she'd pried Scotty's will to live out from her unconscious self and pushed the girl forward.

Pitch walked off to the right, heading for one of his Nightmares, and gave it swift and easy directions.

"Get the Grandmother and ensure that she doesn't help any further." He told it, the Nightmare shifting into a wolf and growled approvingly at him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

To the people who either read this through in one sitting or those who are somehow secretly reading this, thank you :]. I also thought about doing a one-shot for Valentine's day...but then video games, so that idea got trashed. I don't know how I get roped into games D:

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...Guardians

The Guardians stood on the perimeter of the small graveyard. Each of them feeling oddly under dressed as they stood in their bright colorful clothes, a single black band decorating their right arms to show their grief for the Bennett family. Jack, however, seemed to be taking this particular funeral the worst.

Jack was sitting atop his crooked staff, hood up, and was essentially closed off from the other Guardians. His eyes were on Scotty and Jamie. Scotty, tears slowly trickling down her face throughout the entire sermon, seemed to be taking this particular death harder than anyone else within the family. Jamie was attempting, being the good kid that he was, to keep a brave face on for his oldest cousin. However that strong front slowly began to crumble as Jamie realized just how important his Grandmother had really been to all of the Bennett family. Jamie finally gave in to the tears and tucked his head into Scotty's shoulder. This entire situation was reminding Jack of the day he'd went to visit his sister's grave.

300 years really made a hell of a difference when it came to finding graves, especially when the wars had set in through that time with graveyards decaying as land was exchanged and changed. Jack had found many graves sporting more than one individual in them, even with a marked grave. Jack, with the assistance of an older woman he'd met by chance that could see him shortly after the battle against Pitch, managed to zero down on his sister's grave site. He'd stood there for a good day, staring down at the gravestone and having 300 years of forgotten memories all crash into him, similar to the day Baby Tooth encouraged him to open the memories in his tooth container. The impact of these memories had brought him to his knees in front of the grave and made him cry for hours after leaving the site.

However, Jack had been extremely lucky. North had been more than welcoming to hear Jack's troubles as Summer set in and Jack had more downtime to contemplate. Hell, even Phil had listened to him and offered Jack one of his cookies. He'd plowed through the loss with the help of friends and was back to his fun loving self again in a short two to three weeks, his 300 years literally making all the difference in this situation.

Scotty, though, wasn't immortal. She didn't have time or close friends that she could turn to in a pinch. Scotty was going to face something harder than anything Jack had came up against, especially if you took into consideration Mitch from yesterday, and she'd have to face it alone with a strong heart. Jack, personally, was worried. Scotty wasn't stable yet, especially taking into account the attack from Mitch last night and the head injury. When he had spotted her at the dinner table the first night he'd visited Jamie, he could tell she was barely hanging on. Now, though, she looked cracked and shaken to the core. He could see her hold literally slipping slowly as he watched.

Jack felt something gently tap his staff from below and he looked down to see Sandy's hand uncurling from a solid knuckle. Sandy made a few images above his head, eventually ending with Sandy smiling warmly at him. North chuckled, gathering Jack's attention and Jack got down from the staff and lowered his hoodie with that mischievous grin of his, erasing his thoughts with that smile.

"Do not worry, Jack." North told him, already seeming to know what Jack had been thinking about.

"Aye, that lass is a tough one. Survived a night in the snow and a good crack on the head. Not to mention she's essentially lived alone since she was fourteen." Bunny shrugged his shoulders. "That one there is a survivor, fear or not."

Tooth nodded emphatically. "That she is." Jack watched as Tooth's eyes lit up, an idea popping into her head. "Oh! Maybe I could get her to think about her childhood memories again!"

Baby Tooth chirped in agreement. Tooth laughing happily as she started darting around excitedly. Baby Tooth chirped at Tooth again, regaining her boss' attention, and seemingly focusing Tooth.

"Yes, let's go get them!" Tooth bolted off without thinking that the Guardians wanted to go with her.

North let out a sigh of exasperation. "When will she learn that when Pitch is loose, we stick together?"

Jack laughed. "I'm not entirely sure."

Sandy shrugged and rolled his eyes to the side, humor apparent on his face. Bunny, Jack, Sandy and North all gathered onto the sleigh. North threw his globe after saying 'Tooth palace' and waiting for the image to arrive in the center. They were off after giving Jamie a wave goodbye as the funeral let out.

...Scotty

Scotty had a rough time surviving that funeral. She barely ate the food the waitress had placed in front of her at the family lunch afterward, she barely listened to the conversation around her, and she didn't even respond to Jamie as he asked if she was okay while she climbed into her bedroom to lay down for some well deserved rest. She showered again, feeling grimy after being at the graveyard, and dressed in her old pair of worn out sweat pants and the warmest long sleeved cotton shirt she had. She curled up onto her twin sized mattress, expertly put on a warm pair of thick cotton socks without looking under the covers, pulled the covers up to her chin, and fell asleep in quick succession.

As Scotty drifted off, she knew she was in a dream, but at the same time the amount of relief she felt upon seeing her dead Grandmother was too great. Scotty ran towards the woman's waiting embrace and hugged her tightly.

"I knew you'd make it alright." Her Grandmother said warmly, tilting Scotty's chin up a little to look her in the eyes. "However, I haven't got long with you."

Scotty raised an eyebrow and stepped back. "What'ya mean?"

Her Grandmother let out a sigh. "Scotty, do you remember the few stories your father told you about the Boogeyman?"

Scotty scoffed. "Oh come on, first that Jack Frost guy and now this!?"

Her Grandmother nodded mournfully, tsking her granddaughter. "The Boogeyman is real as well. He's trying to get power and he's aiming for your fears and the others caused by the fires that have been around the city."

Scotty gaped at her Grandmother. "Wait…what other fires?"

Her Grandmother sighed. "He has an assistant Scotty. One you've dealt with frequently in the past, Mitch."

Scotty rolled her eyes. "Of course, it's Mitch." Then Scotty gasped and shouted, "Wait, what other fires!?"

Her Grandmother frowned at her. "Yes, yes. Look at your newspaper or internet when you get up." Her Grandmother waved it off, irritation blatant on her face. "Listen to me, child. I have important things to tell you!"

Scotty crossed her arms and nodded, noticing for the first time since she'd entered this dream that the surrounding was nothing more than a blurry, white, mist-like substance. "Yea, go on."

Scotty listened to her Grandmother as she explained a few things to fill her in, mainly the story that Jamie had told her upon her arrival and how the events within the last battle against Pitch rang true. She then heard from her Grandmother that Pitch, the Boogeyman, was aiming to instill in people a crippling fear of their once prized invention: fire. Scotty nodded as the Grandmother went on, informing her that Mitch was the fire Fearling of Pitch's own creation, and that at the moment Scotty's fear of fire was the thing that would be used against her to give Pitch power, especially since her phobia was a bottomless pool of power.

"So, essentially, stop being scare of fire?" Scotty asked as she turned and took in the dream area. "Okay, but that's not something I can just squash in five seconds."

Her Grandmother chuckled. "I'm aware, so instead I'm going to bring up an idea to help you." Scotty felt her Grandmother's hand on her shoulder and was turned back around to face her Grandmother. Her Grandmother blinked her gorgeous brown eyes at Scotty, a smile dancing across her age withered face. "Take a few moments out of the panic you experience at first and think about your father and mother, from what you can remember, and think about your Grandfather and I. Think about how much we all wanted you to have fun, how we never wanted to damper your dreams, and how we placed the seedlings of the strong woman you are today."

Scotty nodded at her Grandmother as the image faded. Scotty also somehow knew that was the last time she'd see her Grandmother, and she had been thankful for some well given advice. However, Scotty's dream world began to drip with black ink, whining horses sounded around her, and fire began to climb up the walls of her dream. Scotty, forgetting what she'd just been told in the panic of seeing the flames licking her surroundings and turning into an all consuming fire, ran off into the tunnel of her dream, chased by flames and Nightmares.

...Mitch

Mitch was with the Nightmares that had morphed themselves into crow like birds, each of them getting a taste of Mitch's power and flames beginning to dance from their beaks and eyes. They let out that annoying crowing sound as they sat around the perimeter of the Tooth palace, waiting for the Guardians to leave. Mitch soon edged the birds forward upon the command of Pitch when he saw Tooth fly off with the other Guardians to go check on Scotty as the afternoon set in.

Mitch rode over to the palace on his Nightmare while the crows swooped through the palace of the tooth fairies, gathering up the little fairies into obsidian cages. Pitch had ordered the Nightmares in bird form to capture the fairies and hide them somewhere Tooth wouldn't be able to find them, at least not easily. Mitch's goal was simple. The Guardians would waste a good portion of time searching for the little tooth fairies hidden around the perimeter which would inadvertently waste enough time and would lead to fairies and Guardians both scattering through the world in a panic to gather kid's teeth, leaving Pitch free for his next plan.

Mitch, however, had never been too great at following instructions. Sure, he caught the fairies and served them up to the crows in their cages, but he also had a particularly vindictive side to him. He'd never got money from the Tooth Fairy, mainly because his father would steal the tooth and throw it into the woods. So he gave a sinister laugh as he looked at the five fairies he'd just caught in the small, canary like, cage made from a black obsidian. Instead of passing the cage off to the crow that was eagerly waiting after the many hours of flying to and from the palace hiding the little fairies, Mitch instead smirked as he dropped the cage he held from the platform. He snickered as he watched the little fairies fall in their cage and disappear below the lines of clouds.

Mitch then turned to the next simple instruction Pitch had given him, cause damage. Enough damage, that is, to cause many of the little fairies to stick around and have fix the palace once the Guardians had found them all. Mitch turned to face the large pillars of the palace. He punched into the pillar in front of him with a grunt and began to heat the thing up from the inside. He watched as the cracks quickly splintered outward, climbing up the central pillar, from the heat as it filled up with a bright liquid looking light to it. To Mitch it resembled a volcano overflowing as the heated insides slipped through the cracking tiles. He had been focusing on this feat intently, this particular trick requiring some focus on his behalf, which is why he just barely heard the jingling of bells and the quick flutter of larger wings. Mitch jumped from the platform as it cracked, the heat from the inside sending masses of tiles falling off in pieces as the bottom of the platform grave a large, sickening, crack.

Mitch turned around in time to see the Guardians, Tooth closer than the ones in the sleigh, rushing towards him. Mitch smirked; looking towards the nest like area above him on this new platform he'd just landed on and sent a flaming burst of fire directly to it. Mitch laughed as more little tooth fairies scattered from their hideout, three crows scooping them up into cages and bolting off in the opposite direction of the Guardians. Mitch dashed across the platform and jumped like a hulk onto another, making the platform crack under his severe weight. He laughed at this, jumping once or twice more as the sick cracking sound echoed through the open clouded area.

"Mitch!" Tooth shouted at him, darting to him too fast for him to keep up with and clobbering him a good one.

Mitch stumbled back from the impact, the cracking sounding louder and louder and the platform beginning to fall out from under Mitch. Mitch, thinking quickly, rolled off the side of the platform that was about to fall. He free fell onto the single Nightmare that Pitch had assigned to him, a larger than normal one to carry Mitch's weight, and rode off into the skies.

Mitch, keeping the Guardians busy as they chased him, shot fireballs over his shoulder. He threw his head back and laughed when he tagged the side of the sleigh, sending it tumbling to the side and scattering the Sandman and the guy Pitch had called Jack Frost into the air. Mitch's Nightmare led him towards the cave in the distance and as it landed he dismounted, watching as Santa Claus struggled to right the sleigh with the Easter Bunny gripping the inside tightly, the fear of flying a distant glint in his eye as he fought to hold onto something from within. Shouting commands to his reindeer, North finally reigned in his sleigh and straightened out.

Mitch looked at Sandy who had floated off on his clustered mass of sand to begin searching for the fairies, after Sandy had spotted one of the Nightmare crows carrying off the cage Mitch had dropped. That Sandman was next on the list.

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Happy Valentine's day everyone :] Or Single's Awareness day if you so choose lol.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

So guys, after this point there's only 7 more chapters, counting this one? I dunno my math might be off. Whoo! I also want to kill my editor. She keeps finding mistakes and pointing them out. Oh well, that's her job right? Thank you again pssnangel4. 3333

Also to those who read this far, thank you for taking time to read this ^^. I appreciate it.

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...Scotty

Scotty jerked awake in the middle of the evening. Her breathing was labored, her injured head pounded as her adrenaline kicked through her body, and she had broke out into a cold sweat. Scotty curled her knees up into her arms and began to rock herself on the mattress, assuring herself that it had been nothing more than a dream. She shakily stepped from the bed, making sure there wasn't anything under the bed after getting off it, and headed over for the bathroom.

After using the bathroom she climbed down the stairs to get more Asprin for her pounding head and bumped into her Aunt on the way. Her Aunt, having noticed the black eye earlier at the funeral, stopped Scotty and led her into the master bedroom.

"Scotty, what happened?" Her Aunt asked, fixing Scotty's hair so it actually sat the right way and would allow her Aunt easier access to the injury on her head. Her Aunt let out a sigh. "I should probably take you to the ER and get this checked."

Scotty gently pried herself away from her Aunt and shook her head. "I'm alright, just a little knock on the noggin."

Her Aunt gave her a dubious look. "Uh-huh."

Scotty smirked, wrapping her arms around her middle. "Yea…I swear I'm fine. I really hate ERs anyway."

Her Aunt shrugged her shoulders and, worry making her brown eyes tender, nodded. "Okay, if you say so."

Scotty led the way out of the bedroom towards the kitchen where she smelled dinner, her stomach grumbling in agreement with the idea of food. "I take Asprin and it seems to essentially fix the ache and surprisingly I'm wide awake and aware, but I tire out pretty quickly."

Her Aunt nodded as they both took seats at the dinner table. "It's probably a combination of the funeral and the head injury." Her Aunt leaned over to cut Sophie's slice of meat for her and gave a death stare to Scotty as she said, "But if I catch you outside of this house past your curfew again without conversing with me first about it, it'll be chores till the cows come home."

Scotty laughed. "Maybe a lock on the window?"

Her Aunt's eyebrows rose, and she joking replied. "Are you daring me?"

Scotty snickered along with Jamie who was actively watching this conversation between his mother and his cousin. The conversation quieted for awhile after a few more ribbings were exchanged between Scotty and her Aunt, who both seemed to enjoy it. As dinner finished, Scotty offered to do the dishes and was quickly shooed off by her Aunt who told Scotty to get the kids ready for bed. Scotty did so, and fairly quickly.

Scotty had just finished reading a bedtime story to both Jamie and Sophie and stood, hiking the sleeping Sophie over her shoulder to carry her easier into her designated bedroom. As Scotty was about to leave Jamie's room, where the story had taken place, Jamie called her name.

"Hm?" She replied somewhat quietly, bouncing in a calming rhythm for Sophie as she waited for Jamie to ask his question.

"Are you going to help the Guardians defeat Pitch?" He asked, yawning.

Scotty smiled a closed lip smile. "Possibly. I've got a few fears I need to sort through first before I'm any good."

Jamie laughed lightly, drifting off to sleep. "You'll patch those up. I believe in you."

Scotty turned off the light for his bedroom as she heard his breathing even out and sleep encompassed him. She blinked, seeing the golden sand surrounding his head begin to take shapes. Both her eyebrows flew up on her forehead and she shook her head, taking Sophie into her bedroom and seeing the same effect after tucking Sophie into bed.

Scotty climbed the stairs after telling her Aunt she was heading to bed again and tucked herself back in. It wasn't long before she was asleep and those dreams of fire set in again.

...Sandy (I should write more for him, he's fun)

The Guardians were running through towns helping Tooth and her fairies gather teeth in the breaking dawn of Europe in order to catch up from their previous battle against Mitch at Tooth's palace and the time spent finding all the hiding places that the Nightmares had placed the fairies. The Guardians were needed again to assist Tooth because her once gorgeous Palace was teetering on a safety hazard and many of her little fairies had to stay behind to repair the damage. Sandman had been the only one excused from tonight's tooth gathering, mainly because the United States children were all bordering on bed time.

Sandy had taken off on his own, certain that he could handle himself. Sandy had a responsibility that he felt was as important as the other Guardians, he needed to ensure that Pitch didn't get power through the kids, and would give them dreams befitting Kings and Queens tonight. Sandy arrived at the break of eight o'clock, the regular time for kids to head to bed at, and slowly worked his way from the North Eastern seaboard down. As he reached Burgess, Pennsylvania, he took his time in ensuring that this particular city was well taken care of, especially in light of recent events.

Sandy dropped by a particular house as well, the Bennett home. He drifted by on his cloud of sand and checked to make sure that Sophie was dreaming of bunnies and eggs. He floated by Jamie's room next, making sure he had dreams of robots fighting dinosaurs. However Sandy stopped short as he drifted up to look into Scotty's room. He frowned when he didn't see anything above her head aside from a dark cloud without images.

Sandy opened the cracked window and drifted in on his silent cloud. He stepped from the cloud, floating just above the ground as he went towards Scotty's injured head, and looked in wonder at her furrowed brows that held a light sheen of sweat. She mumbled things in her sleep, tossing onto her side quickly and letting out a whimper.

Sandy had entered with a tentative smile on his face when he'd seen the cloud over her head, and upon hearing Scotty's whimper his smile fell. He sucked in a breath and expelled some dream sand over her head after he'd gathered a small pile in the palm of his hand. He watched as the little figures above her head switched around from a dark and menacing fire to that of her mother and father embracing her in a hug as she finished, of all the odd things, glassblowing. Sandy watched this dream, scolding himself for sticking around a little too long, but he was entranced with the image of the young ten year old Scotty giggling in the dream sand and blowing into the long pipe to form an oddly shaped glass ball. Sandy, out of curiosity, looked about the room.

_Something that important would warrant a continuous presence in a room, right?_ He thought to himself.

His orange tinted eyes roamed the dark room and he felt a smile tug at his lip as he spotted the item he was looking for. He floated over to the little ball of glass that was perfect in its childlike imperfection. It was more of an odd, oblong circular hybrid, but it held memories that Scotty needed to remember instead of those dreaded thoughts of fire and fear. Sandy picked up the, surprisingly, heavy glass ball and sat it within eyesight of Scotty for when she woke up.

He nodded, smiling to himself as he headed back for the window, and then felt a chill run up his spine. Sandy stopped halfway out of the window and spotted movement out of the shadows of Scotty's room. Sandy brought forth one of his sand whips and entered back into the room, ready for a fight.

Pitch, however, was steps ahead of Sandy. Pitch stabbed Sandy in the side, filtering the sand from him as the blackness of his dagger spread, essentially shrinking the annoying Sandman to a size where he would fit into the amulet that Pitch had ready for him.

Sandy thumped his fists against the magical glass that now contained him, looking up to see that the leather cord that held the pendant he now sat in sucked power from him and twisted it sickly into something that Pitch could use. Sandy frowned at Pitch, whose eyebrows rose.

He laughed at the accusing glare. "Oh Sandy, this isn't for me. No, your powers are for my Fearling. After all, he does need more power to light his little fires, and I can't keep giving mine to him. Not with a fight at the North Pole bordering."

Sandy shook in anger at the sinister smile that danced over Pitch's face, dust glittering from Sandy's small form and sparkling angrily at Pitch. Pitch went over to Scotty, motioning for Sandy to watch, and once again tapped the golden dream sand above her head. Sandy watched in anguish as the once happy glass blowing dream turned into the stuff of nightmares once again.

...Pitch

Pitch arrived back into his shadow realm and, with an amused demeanor, showed the little Sandman around. Pitch swung the amulet, chuckling to himself as he felt Sandy bounce between the impenetrable glass of the amulet. Pitch stopped as he reached the globe, smiling to himself as he saw a few lights flicker out. Granted it wasn't as many as he wanted, but it was enough to damper some of the power the Guardians had.

Pitch looked to Sandy who floated smugly in the middle of the amulet. Pitch frowned at the annoying golden ball and gave it another quick shake before Mitch came sauntering into the room.

"Lit one or two more fires, but honestly I'm burned out." Mitch said, his normally fire filled façade nothing more than an iridescent glowing beneath his skin.

Pitch rubbed his jaw. He held out the little Sandman within the amulet out to Mitch. Mitch stared at Sandy, who flustered at the attention and sprinkled more angry dust, and Mitch straightened from leaning over. Mitch pointed at the amulet.

"What's that for, and who is that in it?" Mitch asked, reminding Pitch that though Mitch was particularly good at setting fires, he still lacked mental efficiency.

"It was the once powerful Sandman." Pitch replied, ensuring that Mitch had a good hold of the amulet before Pitch took his hands away. "Do not bang it around much. Put it on."

Mitch followed the direct and short order after holding the amulet out to examine it more, slipping the leather cord over his head. Pitch stepped back as Mitch's flames shot from him like gasoline on an already open flame. Mitch's face scrunched up in concentration as he reined the flames back, a steady and healthy heat licking the room.

"Ah good, it worked." Pitch muttered almost absently. "Now, go light a few more fires. I need power to attack the North Pole tomorrow night."

Mitch grinned calling for the Nightmare designed specifically for him and shot from the hole above that marked Pitch's entrance and exit into his shadow realm like a torpedo. Pitch watched Mitch go, that sinister smile back on his face.


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

I'm excited, somebody followed this story ^_^ Thank you person (I don't know if you want me to put your name here or not :] )~!

Now I need to go poke my editor. I sent her a few things and she hasn't delivered them back yet. Also, holy crap I really need to delete some of these files from my flash. Way too many stories that lead to blank slates.

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...Scotty

Scotty was, essentially, in bed for what felt like an entire day. She woke up at three in the afternoon after Jamie had come up to bother her about getting up. She spent a good two hours with Jamie. After those two hours, most of it was spent helping Jamie with his homework and glancing at the glass ball that had literally teleported across her room, over the course of her odd sleeping schedule, to her nightstand. Jamie had finished his homework quickly with Scotty's help and then began to beg Scotty to go outside, where a healthy powdering of snow was, to build a snowman. It was something Scotty had never actually done before.

Jamie had talked her into it, which is why she was currently bundling up in thick layers to go outside into the snow covered evening to help Jamie. She wrapped a scarf around her neck as she headed for the front door, Jamie shouting and cheering as Scotty stepped outside onto the porch. Scotty saw all the kids in Jamie's neighborhood gathered for the event of making a snowman. She stepped down onto the snow covered grass and walked over towards Jamie and his friends. After a tedious two hours of snowman making, Scotty remembered that Jamie's mother had recently bought a good stash of carrots that would make for great noses.

Scotty turned around and ran towards the house as the sun set below the horizon to get carrots for the noses of the many snowmen, which is when she stepped by the newspaper sitting on the table by the front door that held an image on the front that caught her eye. Scotty stopped dead in her tracks and picked up the local paper. She read the first line, blinking a few times to make sure she saw it right, and then read it another two to three times in disbelief. Scotty dropped the paper, almost like it had burned her fingers, and stepped back. She clutched her body tightly and stared at the headline.

_Daniel Stafford home burned to dust. Mitchell Stafford, son, still missing._

Scotty shook as her mind reeled in thought. She'd finally managed to figure out, from her hazy memories, that the fire mass that had chased her was actually a fire being that had chased her the other night. She thought about Mitch's constant use of fire against her to scare her off before she figured his threat were nothing more than that. She then thought about what her Grandmother had said to her in the dream, referring to Mitch as an assistant to the Boogeyman. Finally, she thought about the constant dreams about fires she'd been having recently. It was so oddly suspicious that fire was suddenly popping up everywhere around her and Mitch was, according to her Grandmother, some walking inferno of a being. Scotty thought about Mitch suddenly being 'missing' and added in all the peripheral elements. It was here that she could almost see the puzzle that would lead to a solution. However, there seemed to be a piece missing. Something she couldn't quite figure out, how does one stop being scared in this situation? She was so deep in thought, trying to connect those key pieces into a completed puzzle for a solution, that she hadn't heard Jamie's feet scrape along the porch.

She snapped from her thoughts, losing that train of thought she was on, and released the death grip she had on her own body. Jamie was looking up at her with worry as he peeled off his warm down feather coat and followed her eyes towards the floor. Jamie looked down, saw the paper, and then knelt down and picked it up. Jamie read the headline out loud and looked up at Scotty.

"We should go check it out." Jamie muttered, earning a glare from Scotty.

"No, we shouldn't. First of all, the building might fall in from fire damage. Second, its dinner time. Thirdly, it would take us an hour to get there in this weather." Scotty replied to him, nodding towards the outside. "Plus it's starting to snow again and we'd never make it to Mitch's house to see anything good."

Jamie groaned. "Why not? Come on there might be something interesting!"

"No, Jamie." Scotty said sharply, cutting off any further argument. "Now go get ready for dinner, I'll go tell your friends we're eating."

Jamie sighed, shrugging out of his jacket completely and kicking off his snow boots as he nodded. Scotty went outside and told Jamie's friends it was time for dinner and that Jamie wouldn't be back out to play since it was now dark out. As Scotty headed back into the house she swore she saw something out of the corner of her eye, something tall and melded into the shadows, but she wasn't entirely sure. She went inside, thinking about the ball of glass and the joys that had came from that stupid hobby of her deceased father. This memory would prove effective at chasing off the fear that was attempting to grip her heart.

...Guardians

The Guardians were taking a much needed break at Tooth's palace after spending the last eight some hours finding Tooth's fairies throughout the area surrounding the Tooth palace and then gathering teeth on the opposite side of the globe. As the Guardians waited for Sandy's return from putting the children of the United States asleep, they each started to absently busy themselves. Tooth was, for the first time in what felt like centuries, actually sitting on the now fixed platform of her palace. However, even though she was sitting, she was still actively swinging her feet over the edge and shooting out directions to her little fairies that were now actively collecting teeth again. North was sitting in his sleigh carving up a small block of wood with one of his sharp knives he had within his large black sash across his middle. Bunny was leaning against the side of the sleigh painting one of his smoke eggs with bright and colorful colors. Jack, however, was pacing nervously along the edge of the platform that the Guardians were on.

"Where's Sandy?" Jack asked impatiently as he glanced up to see that the palace was at least stable by this point and little fairies were darting around in their teeth gathering. "He should have been back by now."

North shrugged, even though nobody was looking at him. "Relax, Sandy be back soon."

Bunny straightened with a look of irritation directed at North. "Why are you never anxious? Pitch and his little minions are running amok right now, Sandy is currently MIA, and Christmas is right around the corner, yet you're sitting there calmly carving a doll out of wood. How are you not panicking, mate?"

North looked over at Bunny and grinned, his eyes glittering. "My friend, how long have you known me? 300 years? When I was younger, I worry frequently. These days, I find worry overrated. I know my workshop is safe from attack, and if it is attacked I know that Kristy, the Yetis, and even the Elves would fight back anything Pitch could throw at them."

Bunny was flabbergasted. His eyes were locked onto North with confusion apparent on his face. Jack and Tooth both watched as Bunny kept staring at North as he chipped away at the block of wood. The experienced warrior known as Nicholas St. North was worried, but his friends and fellow Guardians required the calm that Sandy normally emitted. Thus, North kept his exterior calm while inside he truly was worried.

As North chipped away at the wood block, careful to keep his emotions hidden behind his mask of calm, he thought back to the last time Pitch had made a move like this. Pitch had attacked Tooth first, stealing the teeth of the children and Tooth's little fairies. He seemed to be playing this card again, yet he left the teeth intact and instead chose to cause utter havoc in Tooth's palace. It had taken them all morning to find the fairies and then the afternoon to collect teeth from the world while the fairies stayed to clean up the mess Mitch had made.

North thought back to the second half of Pitch's last plan, eliminate his greatest threat to power, Sandy. It was here that North's eyebrows furrowed and he looked at the carved out round shape that would eventually be the doll's head. Sandy had said he'd be back in about an hour, possibly two, near the end of their tooth gathering. North hadn't thought much of it at the time, being slightly distracted with yet another tooth gathering competition, and was now thinking that Sandy was probably in danger if he hadn't returned yet.

North grunted and tucked away the little wooden block that now had a rounded head and sat up from his comfortable position in his sleigh. He had given Sandy a large window to return, four some hours, and finally decided it may be time to assume that Sandy had encountered Pitch, and was in trouble.

Jack turned as he heard the sleigh creak with North's weight, Tooth fluttering up from her sitting position, and Bunny straightening from painting another egg. They all faced North, their unofficial leader aside from Manny, and looked at him expectantly.

North sighed. "I have feeling Sandy is caught by Pitch. In what state Sandy is in, I am unsure. Until we figure out what to do about it, though, let us go to the Bennett's home and ensure that Pitch isn't doing anything there."

The Guardians nodded, each of them worried about Sandy as they climbed into North's sleigh. North gave his globe one solid shake after saying 'Burgess, Pennsylvania' and threw it when the city appeared within its center. North mushed the reindeer into motion through the portal and that was when each Guardian saw the small fires dotting the City from above. Mitch was making himself known, and the Guardians would have to snuff him out like the fire he was.

...Pitch

Pitch laughed as he looked outside of Scotty's window. She'd fallen asleep at seven tonight, her head wound and physical activity outside wearing her out so that she'd fallen asleep the second her head hit the pillow. For the past two hours now, Scotty had been haunted by the nightmares of fires, and that fear would grow exponentially when she awoke to see the bright orange lights dotting her City. For now, Pitch felt like he had enough energy to take on anything at the North Pole.

Pitch ducked off into the shadows after spotting North's sleigh whisk by in the air. Both excited to make his next move and too high on the current power he'd gained from Scotty's phobia to notice that Scotty's dreams were slowly turning from nightmares to loving memories of her family. Pitch dropped down a Fearling shadow, using it as a personal portal to his realm and a way to suck the fear from Scotty.

Pitch stepped through into his shadow realm and regaled his Nightmares, each of them taking on assorted forms. The first group were wolves, second were Panthers, and the last were his typical Nightmare horses. Pitch climbed onto his normal steed and found a location close enough to North's workshop in the Antarctic that he could send his army through. After picking the spot he sent forth his Nightmares, following after them. Pitch felt power climb through his limbs as Mitch ran about Burgess setting fires and essentially causing fears, which would later turn into nightmares.

Pitch chuckled to himself as his Nightmares dashed through the harsh snowy winds of the Antarctic. Pitch's Nightmares spotted the massive workshop hidden within the crevice of the hills of the Antarctic and plummeted towards the cave that leads through where the sleigh normally exited from. They flew in without so much as a warning signal being sounded, which Pitch found oddly strange. Normally the Pole was protected better than this.

Pitch dashed through the stables that housed the reindeer and the sleigh, finally spotting at least one Yeti and taking it out in the process before it could realize what was happening. Pitch's wolves dashed through the large double doors of the stable and out onto the first floor that was covered with repair supplies and cleaning materials. Pitch ground his teeth, something wasn't right. They had only run into the one Yeti, and Pitch knew there was more than one in this disgustingly cheerful work place.

Pitch sent his Wolves to climb the stairs with the Panthers as he and his horse Nightmares took to the center of the spiraling building. He and the Nightmares flew past floor after floor of empty space. Pitch hit the top, where North's globe sat, and got off of his Nightmare in the center of what looked to be a great hall, complete with a fireplace. Pitch looked at the surroundings, wondering where all the Yetis and Elves were. Surely they were still here; their work decorated each of the many walls of this entire building. Pitch growled, turning his back to the great hall as he faced the globe, which is why he didn't see the many Yeti's emerging from their hiding spots.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

Updating early, not sure if I will be able to get on laptop tomorrow to post. New story is in the works, but like all tales, it takes time to write. For now, enjoy this one. 4-ish more chapters I think. I dunno, I have to kick my editor.

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...Guardians (Kristy)

The Yetis at North's workshop had been moderately preparing for the possible arrival of Pitch to their home. Kristy choose to be cautious after taking into account the story North had told her of Pitch's last attack during a Holiday. Essentially, Pitch attempted to attack whoever had the most power over children. Kristy had remembered that first it had been Tooth to weaken her, Sandy to eliminate the only true threat to his power, and Kristy was betting money against Phil that he'd try to attack North's workshop like Pitch had attacked Bunny's tunnels the day of Easter.

Kristy, taking into account the fact that Christmas was days away, had wanted to be prepared for anything Pitch threw at them. She had set the Yetis behind in their work schedule in order to prepare in case Pitch attacked. Phil had agreed that a counter against the possible attack from Pitch would benefit them in the long run. They wanted to be ready for an attack, and this need to be prepared would amplify upon the arrival of a letter from North. North had sent them a letter through Baby Tooth, informing them that Mitch was up to something suspicious within the city of Burgess and that Sandy was missing. North had asked them both to keep their eyes peeled for Pitch. It would be Phil who suggested the idea of using North's spotting scope in his office to search the horizon and Kristy who would suggest taking shifts looking through the scope. They would be searching for Pitch, and both would continue to do so even to the brink of Christmas Eve if they had too.

However it was Kristy who spotted Pitch. She, upon seeing Pitch's black cloud of Nightmares through North's scope within his office, immediately sent out word for the Yetis to hide and to herd the Elves into North's office to keep them from causing their usual havoc. While the Yetis gathered the Elves into the North's office, which Kristy had just left, Kristy had headed with Phil upwards toward the armory that North kept well locked and guarded.

Phil was the only other person allowed access to this particular room. This room held weapons that had been forged by the people of the Moon, but refurbished into functioning weapons by the Yetis themselves. Phil, normally, didn't let anyone other than North and himself into the room. Nor did he like someone else outside of North and himself knowing of the room. However, since he trusted Kristy so much, Phil not only allowed her to enter into the glowing room but he had also shown her its hidden location above North's office. Phil had smirked at Kristy's mouth as it gaped open upon entrance into the room, and curiously watched as Kristy had walked the rows of special weapons that each glinted with a bright, but oddly colored, crystalline glow. She walked the rows quickly, grabbing up a small dagger that she particularly liked and stopped so suddenly that Phil bumped into her.

Phil watched in curiosity as Kristy picked up the single weapon that North hadn't used much when he was younger and still a warrior. It was a delicate short bow, resembling the Mongolian bows used by the Mongols of China, and didn't require a quiver since its arrows were made of light upon its drawing of the bowstring. Phil nodded at Kristy when she looked up at him, seeming to ask permission to pick up the bow. Phil nodded and Kristy's eye glittered with familiarity, grabbing up the delicate looking bow. She tested it once or twice, nodding as she adjusted to the invisible bowstring and how much strength was required to ready it. Kristy would then smile up at Phil, eager to fight off Pitch from what she now considered her home, and went towards the exit as Phil grabbed up one or two smaller swords for a few other Yetis as he followed her from the room.

Kristy and Phil barely left the room before they saw Pitch ascend into the great hall and pace the area, his silvery eyes skimming the surroundings. Kristy saw the many Yetis hidden behind long drapes painted to resemble the sides of the building. Phil tapped the railing, sending the Yetis out from their hiding holes and charging towards the many Nightmares. The Yetis emerged from their hiding places as a fierce fighting force, definitely one to be reckoned with as they turned the first wave of Nightmares into dust. To Kristy they seemed to be especially angry, though, because Pitch was attacking not three days before Christmas Eve.

Kristy, angry with Pitch for thinking he had the ability to attack North's peaceful work place that brought countless joy, ran towards the stairs with Phil hot on her heels. As Kristy turned the corner of the spiraling staircase she ducked under the long scythe weapon that Pitch had conjured from his dark sand. Phil had ducked back behind the corner to dodge the swing and was soon attacked by a Nightmare in wolf's form that had been waiting by that particular doorway.

Kristy stood, proudly, in front of Pitch. It was here that Pitch straightened, recognition crossing his features as he took her in. He threw his head back and laughed.

"A member of the Cian family, within the home of good 'ol Saint Nick!?" Pitch hunched over, holding his stomach with his right hand as he laughed. "What is the Irish version of the family Grimm doing here!? This feels like a punch line to a joke."

"It is no joke, Pitch." Kristy said, narrowing her eyes and spreading her legs into a firm firing stance. "I may be part of that family, and trained by them, but I do not, under any circumstances, agree with their beliefs."

Pitch's smile vanished as he frowned at the woman. "Shame, I rather like their 'kill everything' way of life. It makes fighting your family that much more exciting."

Kristy drew back the seemingly invisible drawstring of the bow and readied the crystalline arrow that formed in its middle. She sighed out a steadying breath, readying herself for the release of the arrow, and let it fly towards Pitch. Pitch dodged it, easily enough, returning that attack with a quick swing of his larger than life scythe. This exchange happened for a good twenty minutes before Kristy finally ducked yet another swing from Pitch. Kristy had ducked and dodged many attacks, feeling her age in the process, and was letting another arrow fly as she straightened from the last swing from Pitch. She mentally cheered for herself as the arrow sliced across Pitch's cheek, drawing a dark line there. She'd drawn first blood against the Boogeyman himself.

Pitch rubbed at the spot on his cheek after recovering from the swing. His eyes narrowed, his face eerily staying neutral, and then he finally frowned at Kristy. "It was fun at first," he mocked, "but now you're just annoying."

...Mitch

Mitch ran through the town as the night dawned. He first started at his neighborhood, igniting his annoying white trash neighbor's house first. He could honestly say he didn't feel bad about burning their trailer to the ground. He had hated that neighbor anyway; they were always calling the city on his family, even though their house was just as bad as his. They also knew that Mitch couldn't fix half the things the city had required him to fix. That particular house was nothing more than pay back, and it felt very good.

Mitch had then darted down the street towards the diner. There were people inside, which made setting the back fryer on fire beyond enjoyable for him as he watched all the patrons and the owner of the diner dash from the raging inferno after attempting to put out the fire in the kitchen. He laughed as he spotted the owner, a plump woman of about forty, watch her diner burn from the inside out. He took an absurd amount of joy in watching the experienced cook be unable to snuff the fire that had burst out on her fryer from seemingly nowhere. He'd seen the hopelessness on her face and her dream die as she finally had to face the facts, turn, and evacuate her diner she'd worked so hard on for the past ten years. He saw the tears fall from her eyes as the building crashed in on itself, nothing more than the charred corners of the building the only things standing. He chuckled sickly, that was for never giving him a free night of food like she had for some of the other patrons.

Mitch had ducked out of there when he'd heard the jingling of sleigh bells and then saw the sleigh of Santa Claus, which he remembered from the Tooth Fairy's palace, over his shoulder. He dashed through the town towards the mall; probably the largest spot for him to hit that would cause the most distraction and fear as well, and glanced down at the amulet around his neck. He smirked at the disapproving look that the Sandman had on his face, his once bright smile fallen into a permanent frown. He ran through the front doors of the mall, crashing through the glass double doors, and headed for the store that specialized in team gear as both fire and security alarms sounded through the building.

Bitterly, he laughed as he reached out and felt the fabric of a jersey, which sported his and his father's number from their football days, and set the thing on fire. He ducked back towards the exit of this store after he had tapped a few more shirts and sweatshirts, which all sported the town's name or popular NFL teams, with his fingertips and effectively started an inferno within the store. He stepped from there towards the annoying bookstore. The woman there, who was a known tutor for many of the kids in town, had refused to help Mitch in his times of needs. She had claimed that he was 'too advanced now' for her help to be of any benefit. Mitch went through the glass door, smashing it to bits, and tossed a few books through the shelved walls, lighting the carpet in about five different spots in the center of each aisle. After he did that, he gave the front counter a good, solid, shove with his natural born strength.

A crack sounded, followed quickly by the chiming of the cash register as it crashed to the floor. Mitch saw the green money, thinking at first that he should probably steal it, and then stepped back from that human thought and instead used the money as a kindle to light another fire at the front.

Mitch thought to himself in a moment of rare brilliance, '_What did he need money for when he was a force of elemental power? Plus, he could always steal it if he needed too.'_

Mitch left that shop, the mall's stores that he'd visited beginning to burn with a ferocity that made him ecstatic. He felt charged and ready for a fight against the Guardians that were probably hot on his tail.

He heard those annoying sleigh bells, again, and dashed through the rest of the mall, tossing random balls of fire through windows as he went, his power seemingly endless thanks to the little dude in the amulet. Mitch ducked from the mall, crashing through yet another set of double glass doors and made his way into town towards Scotty's residence. He lit a car on fire as he passed. It was some fancy version of a BMW that he'd always wanted, and continued on his path towards the Bennett home.

It was after that fourth fire, though, that he didn't hear those sleigh bells. Instead Mitch got a good, solid, hit to the back of his head with a small object. Mitch growled, rubbing the spot that stung, and turned in time to get another object hitting him right between the eyes. Mitch stumbled back as it cracked into his nose and knocked him back a few steps. When Mitch recovered he was face to face with a Kangaroo that was wielding two boomerangs. Mitch screamed in rage, stepping towards the car next to him and positioning himself behind it. With a push of fire and heated air Mitch sent the car toppling towards the Kangaroo, who dodged to the side in a roll and let those boomerangs fly as he completed the roll.

Mitch ducked one, looking towards the Kangaroo smugly, only to get smacked in the head with the second. The Kangaroo, annoyingly, laughed.

"Look at ya; you're like an ankle biter with no ability to count." The Kangaroo taunted. "You know I have two of these, they both just whacked you. Why would you stop paying attention after only one went by?"

Mitch growled again, summoning up a ball of flame in each hand and tossing it at the human sized animal. The Kangaroo dodged them, throwing a brightly colored egg in front of Mitch that sent up a plume of smoke that made Mitch gag and stall for a few seconds. Mitch was hit again in quick succession with those annoying boomerangs. Mitch tumbled onto his back, his flames growing and his anger as well.

"Don't mess with the Easter Bunny, mate." Bunny taunted just in time to dodge a mailbox that came from behind the smoke. "Oi, easy mate. I'm not the mailman."

"Shut up!" Mitch shouted, sparking the smoke around him from the heat he was expelling.

Bunny, though quick on his feet and an advanced warrior, didn't see that Mitch had started to charge at him through the smoky flames like that of a football player. Mitch heard the Easter Bunny let out a grunt of pain as his back connected with the car on the other side of the street. A sick crunching sound from metal giving and the sure crack of a window breaking was music to Mitch's ears. Mitch stepped back, looking down at the Easter Bunny who looked like a Kangaroo, and smirked as he got ready to light the rabbit's fur on fire.

Mitch was stopped, though, when a blast of snow hit him in the face. Mitch, irritated from this assault and distracted by it, turned his head towards the direction the snow ball came from. He growled at the smaller snow guy, Jack, and then looked at the humming bird woman, Tooth Fairy, he'd seen from earlier. Mitch glanced down at the rabbit, resisting the urge to spit on it, and turned to run. He was followed, but Mitch ran towards the shadowed section of an alley. After torching the area behind him to stop that annoying Tooth Fairy and Jack, Mitch ducked into the alley and through the portal into Pitch's realm.

Mitch had succeeded on his half of the plan. He'd distracted the Guardians so that Pitch could attack the North Pole.

...Scotty

Scotty's dreams had started off like they had the past day, fire climbing up the walls, engulfing Cities and homes. It scared her, without a doubt. Yet as she started to realize they were dreams the power of fear from the fires within her dreams seemed to lessen and she'd think about that little glass ball she'd made with her father. From that she switched between nightmare-ish fires engulfing her home to the happy memories she'd gathered within that home. The first thing Scotty had thought of was the night where she'd lost her first tooth.

Scotty had been ecstatic when she'd lost it, her father urging her to tuck it under her pillow. Scotty had listened to her father's advice, falling asleep that night and waking the next morning to fifty cents under her pillow instead of the usual twenty five cents that other kids around her neighborhood had got. Scotty had dashed from her bedroom, money in hand, and had belly flopped onto the bed her parents were asleep in, excitedly jumping on their bed and making them laugh in joy at their child's glee as she held the money from her first lost tooth.

Scotty's dreams switched again, the fire engulfing her parent's bedroom shortly after her parents had tickled her in an attempt to get the fifty cents she now cherished. Scotty turned in her bed, her brows furrowed as she remembered dashing through her house as fire licked the paneled walls. Her parent's bedroom had always been a safe haven, a place she could run to and feel safe at night. However, in this dream, and at the time of the fire, her parent's bedroom was now a danger to her life. Scotty had, without really thinking straight in her panic, chosen to hide in the closet of her parent's bedroom. Normally it had been the one spot she felt hidden and safe from the shadows of her room. Within the fire, though, her once safe spot had proven to be the most dangerous to be in.

It was here that Scotty's dream became a muddled mess between fear and joy. Scotty remembered hearing her father's worried shouts as he and her mother circled the house in an attempt to find her. They had been scouring the house looking for her, and had come to their room after taking at least one whole loop of the home searching for Scotty. Scotty had whimpered from their closet as she'd heard their feet thumping through the room. She then remembered the look of absolute relief on their faces when they'd found her. Scotty had found comfort in their embrace as they both dashed through the house to find somewhere to exit, the smoke making both of them cough and wheeze even though they both had something over their mouths. The scene seemed to skip ahead, her father and mother lowering her from the house and urging her to climb down the tree that her father had just installed ladder-like wood panels to in hopes of building a tree house later. Scotty followed what he'd said, her vision of them eclipsed by the inferno of the house as she descended the block ladder and the sharp and sure sound of wood cracking followed by two screams of surprise.

Scotty ran from the house, scared out of her wits as she heard the loud crackling of the home behind her as it fell into itself, the look of relief on her parent's smut covered faces as she lowered herself down that tree the last image of them that she remembered.

Scotty sat up with a gasping breath, her cheeks soaked from tears that had fallen as she remembered that night. She sucked in a sharp breath, seeing the glass ball and narrowing her eyes as she remembered her family, and essentially chasing the fear of that dream away. She saw movement out of the corner of her room, an oddly shaped pitch black being. She looked around the rest of the room, seeing the dimness of the moonlight throughout it and noticing that odd black mass in the corner of the room. Scotty could've sworn something spoke to her, which caused her to glance outside her window and take note of the full moon that seemed to be pleading to her to let the light in. She bolted from her bed, avoiding as best she could that odd side of her bedroom, and grabbed the hand mirror from her dresser. She dashed back over to her bed, threw open the window, and directed the light of the moon towards the dark side of the room using the hand mirror.

Scotty watched the moonlight hit what now looked like a shadow of a person within that dark corner and then heard an awful screeching sound that made her wince as the thing melted away. As it dissipated it revealed that the shadowed side of her room was actually dim with some natural residual lighting now, and Scotty let out a sigh of relief as she felt safe within her bedroom again. If that thing had causing her nightmares, then she'd finally be able to rest in peace for awhile. Scotty glanced at the moon, which wasn't as bright as it once was and tilted her head as she swore she saw something give her a light smile on its surface.

Scotty shook her head in disbelief as she heard the ladder to her room get pulled down. Her Aunt stuck her head in with panic apparent in her eyes.

"There are about five fires around town." Her Aunt said, fully dressed. "I'm going to go see what I can do to help, you're in charge here."

Scotty nodded, glancing over at the side of the room that the dark thing had been in and saw that it was staying a consistent dim instead of reforming into that odd pitch black. Scotty looked back towards her Aunt only to see that her Aunt had left and the sound of the front door closing in a rush was the only sign that Scotty got as she pulled on a bath robe to go make sure Jamie and Sophie weren't being haunted by whatever that thing in her room had been.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

I meant to update last night...got talked into Torchlight II...don't regret it. I also am about to drop the shitstorm of the century on my editor if she doesn't get my darn chapters back to me! You read that right, I will _flip_ a table on you! (this to my editor :] )

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...Scotty

Scotty watched the horizon. It was nearing four in the morning and the bright orange lights dotting the cities horizon had slowly been going out as time passed. She'd received a phone call from her Aunt at about two thirty calling to make sure Jamie, Sophie, and her were alright and to assure Scotty that she was fine as well. Scotty was sitting in a chair in the hallway; both eyes watching her two younger cousins sleep, and waited patiently for those dark shadows to show themselves. However sure Scotty was of those shadows, she felt in her gut that they weren't after Jamie or Sophie.

Scotty adjusted her position, her eyes burning from the want to sleep, and resisted the urge to get up and make coffee in order to keep herself awake. She didn't feel safe leaving Jamie and Sophie alone, even for two minutes as their rooms brightened from the growing sunrise. Scotty changed position again, standing and beginning to pace back and forth between the rooms, the dog Abby snoring happily at the foot of Jamie's bed. Scotty looked at the greyhound and hoped that if anything strange was heard, then she'd make a racket and scare off any intruders.

Scotty heard the phone again at three and dashed towards her Aunt's bedroom. She picked up the phone and her Aunt filled her in on what was happening as Scotty watched two more orange flames dim in the growing light of the morning. Her Aunt assured her that whatever was causing the fires had stopped, and if she felt alright about it, she could go back to sleep. Scotty declined that invitation, preferring to keep her eyes and ears open for any odd sounds.

Her Aunt hung up shortly after explaining a few more things. Scotty did the same, after heaving a big sigh. Her head was beginning to pound. It was then that she heard footsteps coming from Jamie's room. Scotty ran out of her Aunt's bedroom, grabbing a bat she'd found in Jamie's room earlier, she ran past her spot in the hallway and dashed into Jamie's room. She was seconds from swinging until she recognized the red coated guy with the glittering blue eyes and furry black hat. Scotty sighed in relief as Santa Claus stood in front of her, brandished with two scimitars at his sides.

"Morning." Scotty sighed out, lowering her weapon.

Santa's eyes went for the bat in her hands and then he looked at her face and grinned at her. "Good morning. Has there been trouble?"

Scotty had a guilty look cross her face, which is when she dropped the bat with a solid 'thunk' on the small circular carpet on Jamie's wooden floor, and nodded. "Fires, lots of them."

Santa nodded. "Aye. I just helped put the one closets to here out. Jack, Tooth, and Bunny stayed behind to do what they can while I came by here to check on you and Jamie."

Scotty nodded in return. "Want some coffee? If you don't mind watching Jamie and Sophie for a little while I'll go make it? I'm exhausted from lack of sleep and worry, I could seriously use a cup."

Santa nodded his head, rubbing his beard with a thoughtful look in his eyes. "Go, make coffee."

Scotty adjusted her bathrobe and walked from the room. She'd bring up a cup of coffee for the large Russian Santa in case he wanted some, but first she'd check the TV for more updates.

...Guardians

Bunny and Tooth waited for Jack to finish assisting in putting out the rest of the largest fire, the mall. As soon as Jack had set down a solid layer of snow to melt and allow the firefighters better control of the situation, they all ducked out of the mall and headed for Jamie's house. North had gone ahead, sure that if he ran into trouble there with Mitch that he could handle it. They all arrived shortly after Scotty had brought in two mugs of coffee to Jamie's room. Scotty frowned, offering coffee to the others if they wanted it, only to be declined.

North took a seat upon the edge of Jamie's bed, who slept like a log even though activity was taking place around him. Scotty had shooed Abby, the greyhound, from Jamie's room soon as the dog started growling at Bunny, and then sat down with an exhausted sigh in the plastic chair she'd moved from the hallway. She took a long gulp of coffee and was sitting in a spot that allowed her to see Sophie's room from Jamie's doorway. North took a tentative sip from the coffee mug, leaning forward and setting his forearms on his knees as he looked at the liquid within the cup.

"What is making you lose sleep at night?" He asked quietly, his accent sharp and crisp in the morning quiet.

Scotty shrugged, bringing to light the black patches under both of her eyes and the tired expression she wore on her face to the other Guardians. She took another sip of her coffee, seeming to stele herself for a response. Finally she sighed and took one more sip.

"I've been having nightmares." She whispered, staring down the hallway. North noticed the glint of fear in her eyes. "They've been so frequent and so realistic…it's baffling. Then add into that these fires that suddenly appeared…"

North nodded, straightening and beginning to pace the small enclosure of the room. Bunny stepped from North's pacing path, looking at Scotty and noticing for himself that she did have a fear. Tooth pulled out something from the little satchel she had added to her waist, and flitted over to Scotty. Jack's eyes widened as he saw the small cylindrical golden container that held Scotty's teeth from her childhood. Each of the Guardians present in the room had sworn that Tooth had activated the memories from that container earlier.

Scotty stared at the thing, tilting her head to take in the caricature of her face as a child on the side. She smirked.

"What's this?" She took the container and gave it a shake. "Money?"

Tooth smiled warmly at Scotty. "No. It's your memories from when you were a child. I only managed to get one or two memories activated before I had to put it down. It has all the good ones."

Scotty's eyes widened. "I don't need these."

Tooth looked perplexed. "What?"

Scotty kept her smirk. "I've already got them all. It just took some endless persistence from a Grandmother and a small glass ball to bring most of them back."

Scotty, though, looked at the container. Tooth offered her hand out to take the container back, just in time to see Scotty run her fingers over the lid after she'd placed her mug down next to her seat. A glow lit the room and Scotty's eyes glazed over for a few moments as the few memories she'd forgotten rushed back. Bunny and Jack both watched in amazement as that tired expression seemed to be relieved a little. Scotty closed the lid to the container, wiping a tear that had escaped from her eye, and handed it back to Tooth.

"Thank you. I forgot about a few of those." She said as Tooth tucked the container back.

Tooth smiled and darted back next to Bunny and Jack. North cleared his throat and brought attention to himself. It was always jarring how North could blend into a room, even if he did take up a good solid corner of it.

"Your dreams?" He pressed, knowing the girl could handle it now.

Scotty leaned over and picked up the coffee cup to continue drinking it. "Fire, lots of fire." Scotty looked as if a stroke of genius had just hit her as her face brightened, still carrying that tired look. "It makes me panic, causes fear."

North smiled in triumph, finally glad to have narrowed down Mitch's hand in this whole debacle of a situation. Scotty dashed from the room, which jarred North into following her along with all the other Guardians. Scotty halted at the foot of the stairs, her head turning in a semi circle before she rushed forward towards the TV that was low volume and a newscaster talking avidly about the fires. Scotty picked up the large, thick, Mythology/Fairy tale book she'd brought with her when she'd first left her apartment in California. She paged through it after checking the index and opened it to a gruesome caricature of a picture. Scotty's finger grazed the page, North staring at the title.

_Boogeyman_. It read in bold italic print at the top. He heard Scotty muttering as the other Guardians gathered around Scotty.

She tapped her finger on the line she was looking for. "Gains power from fear…is that right?"

North nodded when Scotty looked up to him. He watched the smile dance across her face as realization hit.

"Well, guess I have nothing to fear in my dreams anymore." She said, proudly.

...Pitch

Pitch ducked another three arrows that were shot at him. He looked across the great hall at the mortal woman. Her dress was torn in certain spots, her cheek sporting a deep slice he'd given to her moments ago, and her breathing was labored from all the tumbling she'd been doing. Pitch relaxed his stance a little, smirking at the woman.

"Kristy, dear, it's rare when a member of the Cian family reaches your age. You should take this into consideration before I slice you in two." Pitch stepped forward, readying his scythe for another swing. "Give up and I might let you live to see tomorrow."

Kristy gasped in a breath and dodged his attack. She'd jumped, of all things, closer towards him. Pitch frowned as she straightened yet again.

"You have no power here, Pitch. Nobody is afraid of you." Kristy began, taking a feeble step forward. "Look around."

Pitch, feeling like this was nothing more than an excuse to distract him, chose to swing his scythe again. Kristy jumped over it again, garnering another three steps towards him. Pitch growled, swinging and becoming furious as each swing missed. Cian family members were fun to fight, usually, but this one was proving to be a nuisance. She was well trained, a true warrior at heart within a soft exterior. Pitch frowned as he realized that the Cian family had, probably, become much more efficient at fighting his type the past 300 some years of their existence.

Becoming desperate as this Kristy woman closed the distance between them, Pitch called for the power of Scotty's fear from the Fearling he'd left in the corner of her room. Pitch felt no surge of strength, however, which caused him to straighten with realization. Pitch felt nothing, no familiar spark of life from his Fearling that he had left to siphon that powerful source of fear from the girl. The Fearling's life source was gone, snuffed out. It wasn't in a weakened state, like most of his Fearlings when they were beaten by the Guardians. This one was completely and totally gone. There wasn't even a residual essence left. Pitch, was caught unaware from this surprising revelation he'd just encountered, and received a crystalline arrow to his left shoulder.

He hunched over, his scythe disintegrating as pain laced through his shoulder. His eyes widened as he reached out for that Fearling in desperation, thinking that maybe he'd reached for the wrong one. He then ground his teeth as he received nothing, again. There wasn't a sign of life from that Fearling. Pitch, deep in his disgust as he pried the arrow from his shoulder, jerked back into the present as he saw the Kristy woman draw the bow back again.

"You're a fool, Pitch." Kristy said. "You're always so high on your pedestal that you never have back up plans. You're always so sure that every move you make will be the right one." Kristy let the arrow fly, Pitch stepping aside and letting it pierce the Nightmare that had been fleeing from the mess of a fight down below. "To even have the nerve to think that you could step into North's residence and ruin Christmas was your mistake. To think that his Yetis were too dumb to prepare for an attack by you and too disorganized to fight back was your next mistake." Kristy's eyes took on a dark look. "The last mistake you made was to assume that you could rely on the stagnant fears of only a few individuals as a power source."

Pitch gritted his teeth. He stepped back and dodged one more arrow from the Kristy woman. He jumped onto the railing, calling forth his leftover army of Nightmares in all shapes and forms, and glared at the woman.

"Heed my warning, mortal." Pitch said with malice. "I will end your family one of these days. There aren't many of you left after all. I'll pick them off one by one until only you and North are left. Then I'll pluck North from your hands and turn him into one of mine." Pitch watched the woman's eyes narrow, his threat seeming to do nothing to the strong willed woman. "You win this round, but this is far from over."

With that warning ringing through the air, Pitch mounted his Nightmare and took off into the breaking morning light towards the dark caves just outside of North's workshop. He'd lost. He'd have to retreat and regain power from the fears that Mitch should have caused over night.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

So updating again early. Yea, I've got 3 bloody stories I've got bouncing around my head and no time to write them. One of them I *think* is fully plotted out and all I need is the time to do it. The others are on rocky shores until I narrow down exactly what I want to do with them. My editor read over the prologue for the fully plotted one and absolutely loved it (and forced me to make the main character male...I feel like she's daring me to do this). I made it work, a little too well, and actually can't wait to start writing it...now to find the time!

Anyways: Enjoy and thank you peoples who are adding to your favorites/following, or better yet, both! 3!

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...Scotty

Scotty had spent last night sleeping really well, her dreams vacant of any and all fires. Actually, now that she thought about it, her dreams had actually been restful blank slates with only a few images dancing across it. She'd woken this morning with a spring in her step and a healthy attitude that was the polar opposite to her normal, usually grumpy, demeanor. She quickly went through her morning routine of washing her face and brushing her teeth. She changed into warm clothes and practically skipped down the hallway towards the stairs.

She saw that the sun had melted a healthy portion of the snow that had decorated the expanse of the city. She sat down and ate breakfast with her Aunt and cousins, walking Jamie to school in the chilled morning, and even found herself wandering a few stores searching for a thank you gift for her Aunt for Christmas.

Scotty sighed as she looked at the twenty dollars her Aunt had given her for 'food' and decided that even though pizza for lunch sounded divine, she'd much rather buy her Aunt a Christmas gift. She'd been wandering the stores in the mall searching for a gift that screamed 'buy me' and was surprised when she turned a corner and ran into, none other, than Jack. Scotty's brows rose in surprised and Jack gave her that famous grin of his.

"Shopping?" He asked.

"Stalk much?" Scotty replied, a smile dancing on her face.

Jack shrugged. "Only Jamie's relatives, especially when I know it creeps them out."

Scotty laughed, probably looking insane to people as she talked to the intangible being in front of her. Scotty nodded her head towards the end of the aisle, after spotting some guy glancing around the corner of an aisle at them, and spent the afternoon with Jack. His company had become a welcomed delight as he caused mischief here and there within the store. They had just turned into a new aisle when Scotty spotted something at the end. She dashed forward, looking at the jewelry display in front of her.

"You think Jamie's mom would like some costume jewelry?" Scotty asked, looking specifically at the gorgeously made green crystalline necklace with a silver chain.

Jack shrugged. "I've never actually seen her with jewelry."

Scotty nodded, sighing in defeat. "I give up."

Jack gave her a reassuring pat on the back. "There's more than one store."

Scotty nodded. "I'm the one chick in the world who hates shopping."

Jack laughed, pointing his staff towards the mall's exit. "I need to go check on Jamie. I'll see you later."

Scotty nodded again and waved goodbye to Jack over her shoulder. She walked through more stores, at least the ones that were open in the mall and didn't sport fire damage, and stumbled upon another item. She remembered hearing her father once say her Aunt, his sister, had a natural tendency to buy things that had Monkeys on them. So she wandered through a few more stores and finally got lucky.

Scotty stared at the gorgeous crystalline figure of a monkey hanging from a tree. The figure was twenty dollars on the dot, and Scotty walked out of the store holding the bag like it was a precious commodity that everyone wanted. She snuck into the house after walking back home and tucked the bag under her bed. She then dashed off to go pick up Jamie from school.

"You got my mom a present?" He asked, glancing up at Scotty in disbelief. "But she gave you that money to spend on food."

Scotty shrugged. "What am I going to do, be that sad person in the corner who eats alone? Why would I spend that money on food when I have neither friends to meet up with me or the real want to actually buy food when there is a healthy supply at home?"

Jamie couldn't quite wrap this idea around his head, but then again he'd never really experienced being a 'starving' individual before. Twenty bucks, as Scotty had proven today, could be used for something small and beautiful if looked for with a careful eye. Course, luck never hurt either. Scotty got Jamie home and had him sit and do his homework early that evening. As he finished up the last of his History homework Scotty snatched some wrapping paper from the pile in her Aunt's room. She wrapped the present, holding the small box carefully, and admired her work.

Course she jumped six feet in the air when her Aunt asked from behind her, "What's that?"

Scotty grimaced, ruining the surprise she'd planned for her Aunt upon Christmas day. Scotty turned, tucked the present behind her with a grin, and wagged her index finger at her Aunt.

"You won't find out till Christmas day." Scotty said, impersonating her father's voice as best she could.

Her Aunt grinned at Scotty. "May I?"

Scotty rolled her eyes, her Aunt's version of big pleading puppy dog eyes too strong for her will. She handed the box over and followed her Aunt down to the dinner table. Jamie and Sophie were there, waiting patiently for both Scotty and their mother to arrive, and sat up in glee when they saw their mother with a present.

"Who's it from?" Sophie asked, her green eyes glittering in excitement.

"It's from Scotty." Her Aunt replied, beginning to open the gift.

It wasn't long before her Aunt's eyes held tears in them. She lifted the little figurine out, turning it in a circle to admire the craftsmanship of it, and looked across the table at Scotty.

"How'd you know?" She asked, putting a hand over her mouth to try to mute the whimper.

Scotty shrugged. "I had some help remembering things recently."

Her Aunt stood, placing the small figurine on the table, and walked over to give Scotty a tight hug. Scotty smiled at her Aunt as she pulled away and said, "Merry early Christmas Aunt Emily."

...Guardians

The Guardians watched the exchange that happened at the table. Tooth was practically in tears behind them as she cried at the precious moment that had just taken place. They all were extremely proud of Scotty, who was changing right before their eyes. North, however, was probably the proudest of the group. He now knew, looking at Scotty, that if Pitch and Mitch tried anything, they'd be in for a fight from just her alone.

They all moved to Scotty's bedroom, joined by her and Jamie shortly after their arrival, and discussed what possible moves Pitch could have left. Jamie had fallen asleep after a few hours of discussing, Scotty excusing herself to put Jamie to bed and then Sophie, and arrived back in her room with a yawn that had matched Jamie's earlier.

"You should sleep." North told her.

Scotty shrugged. "I do alright with five hours. Plus I'm actually still kinda awake. You guys have me panicking and my adrenaline is kicking."

The Guardians each smiled at Scotty as she parked her butt on her bed and began to toss the abnormally shaped ball of glass between her hands. She looked deep in thought, which is why North motioned for the Guardians to leave. They left her there, tossing the ball back and forth, and waited. It was Pitch's move, and they were more than ready to react to it.

...Pitch

Pitch flew through the hole in the ground and angrily threw a rock across the shadowed room. It cracked loudly off the dark stoned marble of the realm. He'd failed. Granted it was a minor mishap for him, especially since North had apparently adopted an annoying Cian family member, but it was still something that made him beyond irate. Christmas would go off without a hitch, and it was all because North had somehow been prepared for Pitch's assault even though he wasn't even there.

Pitch ground his teeth, throwing two more stones, and thought about that annoying Cian family. They'd actually foiled one of his plans before by complete and total accident, cutting off his entrance into one of the poorer families of the Colonists by lacing the room with a plant that was now extinct. That particular plant had established some strange barrier around the home, the fragrance of it causing happy thoughts and moods and blocking the fear. He'd been more then irritated with that and made sure said plant was extinct. Annoyances like that had to be cut off, pun intended. He growled unhappily one final time as he tossed one more stone across the room.

It was then that Mitch walked in, a smile plastered on the idiot's face as he sauntered in. Of course the second he took in Pitch's angry demeanor that smile faltered.

"How much damage did you cause?" Pitch asked Mitch aggressively, towering over the behemoth of a kid as he used his shadows to grow in height.

"Plenty." Mitch replied. He rubbed his nose, which brought to Pitch's attention the bruises that sat under each eye. "'Course those Guardian guys stopped me mid rampage. I burnt down a trailer home, some of the mall, and lit some poor guy's BMW on fire. It was a big success."

Pitch went forward and looked at Mitch. He was hurt, and somewhat decently. Pitch frowned, figuring from the injuries that something had batted Mitch in the face, more than once. Pitch turned away, cursing Bunny in his mind as he looked back at the globe. Only a few lights had gone out, which irked Pitch to a degree that, if he had Mitch's powers, would have engulfed the room into an inferno that not even a volcano could match.

Instead he decided to direct that anger. He turned to Mitch, his eyes narrowed in anger, "We attack that Scotty girl tonight, and we take her out of this picture permanently."

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Its a shorty, but kinda goo-ey (sp?). You know, except for that thar death sentence. Ha, yea I'll upload 13 tomorrow if my brain isn't dead from bleach+acidic cleaning supplies...or another round of Torchlight II. Dem battles!


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

Okay so I got round to posting (you know at that 1am mark because I'm always up it seems). I started working on my next story, and I have to be honest, I really like the way its coming out so far. I'm going to be shipping out Chapter 1 to my editor within the next 30 some minutes to get her feedback before I get too excited though. Until then, enjoy this chapter!

And again, Thank you for adding this to your favorites or subbing!

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...Scotty

Scotty had fallen asleep at some point that night, unaware that somebody had been sneaking around her room as she slept. Course Mitch wasn't the quietest person in the world, and he knocked the picture frame that held the only photo of her parents off the nightstand. The crack of the glass woke Scotty into a drowsy state, which she snapped out of the second she saw Mitch looming above her.

Scotty reacted quickly, rolling off her bed and snapping up the bat from below her bed and grabbing the tops of her snow boots. She stood as Mitch reached down for her, hitting his forearm with a steady swing and ducking past him towards the window. She jerked it open, surprised to see that the Guardians weren't there, and climbed down the tree. Mitch followed her, snow melting below his feet as she finished climbing down the tree. He followed after, setting the trunk of the tree ablaze. Scotty gathered some snow and threw it at the spots, relieved when they went out, and then realized Mitch was right on her tail. She slipped her freezing feet into the boots and gave the laces a tug before she had to get running again.

She dashed off; adrenaline making her warm in her long sleeved black shirt and warm sweatpants she'd worn to bed, and ran towards the Elementary school. She needed to get this inferno out of the neighborhoods and someplace where his fire might actually be snuffed out from lack of flammable objects. She realized really quickly, as she dashed through the cold, that she needed a jacket, gloves, and a scarf. Her teeth chattered as she cleared the fence that led towards the woods she'd originally got lost in.

She was anxious about doing this, especially since she couldn't quite see where she was going and had nothing more than a kid's bat to fight off an inferno. She squinted in the night, trying to follow the previous burn marks on the trees. She winced as the night suddenly became just a little brighter, and seemed to pave the path towards that meadow she'd first stumbled upon the Guardians in. She heard Mitch behind her, the crackling of wood fairly loud in the woods, and kept running. She didn't glance behind her this time, and made the climb down from the spot she'd fallen from before much easier.

She stumbled through the bushes of the meadow, readying the bat she held. Mitch walked through the bushes, burning them as he stepped through them. His grin a malicious one as he came forward, Scotty noticing how hot it had suddenly became.

"Scotty, do you remember your house fire?" He asked her, that malicious smile plastered on his stupid face.

Weary and confused by Mitch's comment, Scotty looked Mitch directly in his eyes. Of course she did, how could she possibly not? Was Mitch trying to scare her? Bring back her fears of fire by reminding her of what she had once lost by it? Yes, she was afraid of fire, but not Mitch. She could handle him, always had. Mitch may be a walking inferno of flames, but he was no different than before. He was still always the same old, hot-headed, dim-witted, Mitch (****).

Mitch chuckled, slapping his hands together and blowing on them. "Well, since I'm about to kill you I'll let you in on a secret." Mitch lowered his hands, lighting them with fire balls. "I did it. I not only lit your house on fire, but I made sure it would burn to the ground."

Scotty dropped the bat, her mouth falling agape as she looked at the murderer of her parents. The one who ensured that she sought out being alone compared to surrounded by family. She gritted her teeth, fury making her shake.

...Guardians

The Guardians had been on the apartment building across from Jamie's house. They were waiting for Pitch to make his move. What they hadn't expected, however, was Mitch to suddenly be inside Scotty's room. They bolted into action seeing Scotty dash from the house after throwing a few snowballs to stop the fire from climbing further on the tree. Jack split off here to make sure the fire was doused in snow while the other Guardians followed after Mitch and Scotty.

"Wow, she can sprint." Bunny said from next to them as they chased after Mitch.

"She is very fast." North agreed, halting suddenly as Pitch's Nightmare jumped into their path from the shadows of the alley.

North, Bunny, and Tooth halted in their pursuit. North, upon Jack's arrival, told him to go watch Scotty. He took off, looking unsure of leaving them with the Nightmare, and followed the melted path of snow that had marked Mitch's path into the woods. North pulled out his scimitars as Pitch sauntered from the alley, a smile plain on his face.

"Ah, so now there are three." He said, smirking proudly.

"Where's Sandy, Pitch!? What'd you do with him?" Bunny exclaimed, all the Guardians fearing the worst for their companion yet again.

"How touching. You're so worried about your fellow Guardian. What's wrong, the children of the world having troubles sleeping at night without their good dreams to guide them?" Pitch replied, his smirk twisting into a pleased grin.

The grin set angry scowls along three Guardians standing in front of Pitch. It was Bunny, again, who would be the voice of them.

"You won't get away with this, Pitch. We'll find him and stop you." Bunny exclaimed, anger seething from him.

Cracking his knuckles and readying his long scythe, Pitch replied flippantly: "We will see, but first you need to find your little Sandman." Pitch's confidence made the Guardians cautious. Let's get this over with, shall we?"

Pitch nodded and from the alley climbed countless numbers of Nightmares. They circled the three remaining Guardians. Pitch honestly expected to see worry in their faces, yet each of them were sure and confident in themselves. This angered Pitch, which caused a few Nightmares in various animal shapes to dash towards the Guardians. He watched as those few were shattered into dust and that was when he decided he should join the battle as well. He sighed, readying his scythe again, and sent his Nightmares in as he swung his scythe at the Guardians.

The Guardians scattered in a rush of black dust from the Nightmares they'd eradicated in that initial wave. Pitch would quickly single out North, feeling like he had a score to settle with the Guardian who was literally housing the single most dangerous being in existence with warm hospitality.

He smirked as he sliced North's fur covered hat, making the Guardian of wonder frown with distaste as his once full hat was now in halves.

North tsked him. "Was very good hat. Perhaps I break code and bring you one for Christmas."

Pitch's smirk turned into a scowl. He swung again, this time he waited for his wolf to jump North, but failed to hit the swift warrior even with a distraction.

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Huh, I thought I had more than that. Guess not lol! Also please note that **(***)** is a footnote for my editor, who had apparently ran into brilliance while reading this story and completely steamrolled my idea with hers. That small section there is entirely her, pssnangel4, and I gotta give her credit for it. She whooped my butt there! haha.


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

Author Note: So...looking ahead and having an hour or two of my English guest MIA I decided to bump on here and leave the last 2 chapters! Whoo! Thanks to all who read this story and thanks to my editor pssangel4 (who needs a boot to the head since she _**still**_hasn't returned my first chapter of a new story I have in the works *air quotes*. But don't expect much from me anytime soon. Desktop's videoboard just blew up for the upteenth time = me not getting laptop at night for writing :[. Add into that Wisdom tooth removal on the 5th and you've got one heck of a start to a new story.

Thanks again all, and enjoy the last 2 chapters ^_^ It's so kiddy how I wrote this story lol.

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**...Scotty**

Scotty was on her hands and knees in the grass, her breathing was labored, and she was sporting sunburn on her cheeks. For the past ten minutes she'd been dodging the fireballs that Mitch had been throwing her way, laughing in glee as he made her 'dance' in order to dodge them. She'd finally fallen to her knees, her legs noodles from the exhausting amount of jumps she'd had to do, and cursed her lack of physical activity the past few years. She stood, shakily, and felt comforted by the weight of the bat that she'd once again picked up.

She looked at Mitch, narrowing her eyes at him as he grinned at her with fire dancing off of him. She wondered how the heck he was able to even control fire, let alone keep this kind of heat up for so long. She looked for a weakness, maybe even an off switch, and found it. She stared at the necklace he wore, she'd never seen Mitch wear any kind of jewelry before, and saw a familiar golden glow emanating from it. She then noticed the small sand like figure within the pendant. The small being, the Sandman, waved at her excitedly upon her noticing him. Scotty thought quickly, trying to figure out how she could snuff out Mitch without causing any serious damage to herself or the innocent Sandman in the process.

It was here that a large pile of snow dropped onto Mitch's head, stunning him. Scotty ducked behind a tree while he stood there looking up at the sky. She almost screamed when Jack landed next to her, glancing around the corner of the tree to watch Mitch turn in frantic circles as he looked for Jack.

"Ideas?" He asked her in a whisper.

**...Jack**

Jack glanced around the tree again; sure that Mitch would have heard that whisper. He was surprised, however, when Mitch kept circling and looking towards the sky. Scotty edged around the tree trunk and pointed to the pendant.

"That Sandman of yours is in that necklace." Scotty said, her eyes narrowing. "I think it's powering him."

Jack's eyebrows flew up in surprise. That would explain the kid's power while separated from Pitch, who had appeared as Mitch's power source from the last fight.

"That would explain that heat he's giving off." Jack replied, leaning back behind the tree as Mitch looked down and realized Scotty had gone missing. "I had a larger pile of snow to drop on him compared to what did."

Scotty nodded, looking redder in the face than normal. He watched her, her eyes bright in thought, and then she gasped and shook the bat.

"I have a plan." She told him, excitedly. "Distract him and I'll smash that pendant. I'll try not to hurt your Sandman in the process, but I can't make any promises."

Jack frowned. He didn't like the idea of her being that dangerously close to Mitch or the idea of Sandy possibly getting hurt, but he didn't see many options. He nodded, unsure if this was the wisest choice in the world, and had the wind carry him into the air.

Jack dropped another pile of snow on Mitch, this time allowing the giant of an inferno see him. He waved at Mitch, forming a snowball, and chucked it at him. He could play distraction while Scotty got into a better position to break that pendant with Jamie's bat. Jack lowered himself down onto the ground, glancing around for Scotty, and saw her. He jumped up as Mitch swung at him, Mitch recovering fairly quickly from the swing, and left his chest wide open for Scotty's swing.

Jack almost couldn't believe what he saw. Scotty, covered head to toe in as much snow as she could gather, dash from the woods with that bat held tightly in her grip. She reached Mitch, the snow melted into water by the time she got in close and began to dry as she swung the bat, and that swing held all her might.

A sharp crack sounded, and some of Mitch's fire died as sand quickly filtered from the now broken pendant. Sandy formed himself quickly and rolled from Mitch. Scotty, however, would be grabbed by Mitch. He held Scotty's arm, leaving a burn there when she twisted and pried her left forearm free, and jumped from his recovery attempt to grab her a second time.

Scotty looked at Sandy and shouted, "Snuff him out with your sand!"

Sandy, empowered quickly by not only children's beliefs but with Scotty's undying belief as well, he doused Mitch in a large pile of his sand. Of course Mitch resisted, using the last bit of power he had in his system to attempt to burn off the sand that was encircling him. Jack panicked, noticing the sand was liquefying, and threw snow on top of the liquefied sand. Sandy and Jack kept their unique powers applied to the hulking inferno as it began to falter. When the heat died down, Scotty walking towards Mitch without receiving any burns, they stopped.

Each of them stared in disbelief at what all of them, along with Mitch, had done. Mitch's form stood in front of them, features slightly melted, encased in a large glass sculpture of himself. Mitch, in his blind fury and panic, had heated himself up to just the right temperature to allow his entire being to turn into glass.

Scotty was the one who broke the melancholy silence. "If Mitch is here, then that Boogeyman guy probably isn't far behind."

Sandy and Jack exchanged a worried look, fearing that they'd damned an innocent soul, but couldn't stall on that thought. Pitch had probably attacked the other Guardians, and they would undoubtedly be outnumbered by Pitch's Nightmares.

**...Pitch**

Pitch swung his scythe, cutting a nice smooth line across North's arm. North winced, covering the injury with his disarmed left hand as he took a solid swing at the Nightmare that had attempted to follow up that swing from Pitch. Pitch was ecstatic; it looked like he was winning, even with a meager power base.

"So, North," Pitch began, an evil grin crossing his features as Bunny bounced against a car, "how does it feel to lose against someone? I'm well acquainted with loss."

North chuckled, his breathing labored. "You think you win so early in fight." He straightened, his clothes ripped in various spots and some blood surrounding those rips. "You are too confident in your Nightmares. Too sure that your plans are foolproof."

Pitch swung again, angered by North mimicking what Kristy had said to him the night before, and followed this swing with three wolves. He laughed heartily as they pinned North to the ground, three Nightmares dashing after Tooth in Pitch's peripheral vision. The wolves growled at North as they held two of his legs and the one arm that still held a scimitar. North, in all honesty, was looking worse for wear. It made Pitch feel like he could actually win this one, which is why he ignored the sudden chill that surrounded him. Pitch got ready to swing his scythe again, only to stop mid-swing when snow toppled on him. Pitch fumed from under the pile of snow, growling as he clawed his way out.

Pitch looked around as he wiped the last of the snow from his shoulders and met eye to eye with Sandy. Pitch took a large step back, his own fear once again gripping his heart from his arch nemesis. He suppressed that fear, knowing his Nightmares would turn on him the second they smelled it, and faced Sandy.

"Sandy, glad to see you've returned." He said casually.

Sandy waved his index finger in front of Pitch, a look of disappointment on his face. Pitch rolled his eyes.

"What're you going to do? Turn my Nightmares into pleasant dreams?" Pitch asked sarcastically.

Sandy smiled at Pitch, throwing out one of those sand whips of his and hitting the three wolves that held North in quick succession, the cracking of the whips echoing as he set the whip at his side and the Nightmares disintegrated. Pitch's face fell. It was here he realized that, once again, he'd been beat.

"Where's Mitch!?" Pitch shouted, searching the battlefield as he watched his Nightmares fall to the other Guardians.

"Mitch is dead." Pitch turned around sharply, the Scotty Bennett girl standing in front of him with a bat held in a tight grip. "To nobody's fault but his own and yours."

Pitch was hit, hard, with the bat. It was a swing that a major league Baseball player would have been proud of. He toppled over as Scotty hit him directly in the diaphragm, knocking the breath from him in one swift swing. He fell to his knees, clutching his stomach as he saw Scotty get a pat on the shoulder from North.

"How!?" He gasped out after struggling to breathe for a few seconds, straightening and glad for his otherworldly healing powers.

Scotty crossed her arms, both of which sported burned sleeves and her left forearm in particular having a nasty looking second degree burn on it. "Easy, heat plus sand equals glass. Add Jack's frost powers and you've got a heck of a quick coolant. I'm honestly surprised Mitch didn't shatter."

Pitch stood, staring at her. "Of all the lucky…"

Scotty nodded. "Yep. Of all the fears you could have picked you chose my phobia of fire to siphon from. It was also a big mistake on your part bucko, not to do your homework on my father's hobby of glassblowing."

Pitch glared at Scotty, then at each of the Guardians who had encircled her after defeating the rest of his Nightmares. Tooth cracked her knuckles again, getting ready to flit forward and sock him again, but he stepped back towards his single Nightmare. They ducked off into the alley, slithering along what shadows they could find to retreat back to Pitch's lair in the morning light.

Jack got ready to chase after Pitch, but was held back by North. Jack looked at North with a questioning glance, then at Bunny with the same look.

"He isn't going to do anything anytime soon, mate." Bunny said, tossing a little egg in the air with a grin. It was a particularly strange looking egg, it had dibits in it and made a rattling noise when Bunny gave it a reassuring shake. "I'm going to make sure he can't come out for a few years."

Tooth snickered as Sandy smiled at the egg Bunny held. It was a unique root, one given to him by his sentinel eggs that guarded the entrance to his island. It had a special kind of weed that would grow over the hole in the ground that led to Pitch's lair. This weed would cover the hole for a good five years, if Pitch didn't start immediately clearing it away upon its arrival.

Tooth and Bunny snuck off into the woods, Jack heading into the air to spread snow all around for the kids to enjoy. Sandy got onto his cloud, bowing to Scotty in thanks for freeing him from that pendant, and floated off to put more kids to sleep. North turned to Scotty, smiling at her.

"We need to get you home with an explanation for your state." North said, smiling as Scotty hissed in pain, suddenly taking notice of her wounds.

"Why'd you point them out!?" She shouted at him, garnering a heartier laugh from North.


	15. Finale

**Disclaimer**: Any and all characters from Rise of the Guardians are copyright of Dreamworks, as is the universe that this story is based in. The only characters I created was Scotty, Kristy, Scotty's grandmother, and Mitchell Stafford.

**Also please note**: If you have not seen Rise of the Guardians I suggest you go see it before reading this particular story. It kinda piggybacks off the plot and there may be spoilers for those who haven't seen the movie.

AN: So here's the end! Whoo! I honestly can't wait to get started on my next one. I *may* post up a teaser here soon (videoboard, wisdom teeth, still another 4 days of friend visiting). Anyway I'll see my editor Monday and poke her about my first chapter (which is a month overdue now) and get her to send me that. Maybe if I post the chapters first I'll be more inclined to post _good_ work lol.

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**...Scotty**

Scotty was dressed extremely nice for the Bennett family Christmas dinner. After watching her cousins dash about the house excitedly with their new toys, she'd been content to just watch her cousins enjoy their fun. She'd also sent out a few phone calls earlier that day to, essentially, all of her family members. Imagine her surprise last night when she woke up to her Grandmother, melting from the shadows and brightening them with a light that matched the moon's, and guided Scotty to her address book held within Aunt Emily's home.

It had been left to Scotty in the will, but her Aunt hadn't wanted to cause her anymore grief and had held off on giving Scotty the address book. Upon finding it Scotty had immediately started making plans to surprise her Aunt. At three o'clock that afternoon on Christmas day members of the Bennett family had began to arrive, some of them 'magically' finding airplane tickets the night before with 'magically' cleared schedules. She had then been up and down the rest of the day helping her Aunt cook a dinner fit for Kings. At about six that night the family settled in for their Christmas Dinner. Scotty spotted the Guardians standing outside of the large window at the kitchen table. She was happy to see them, to know they were secretly watching over her family. She nodded to them, stood and gave a toast to her Grandmother. Though she was stumbling within the large footprints her Grandmother had left, and things still weren't perfect, but Scotty was somehow making things work and she was once again happy to have a family.

The Bennett home had a new matriarch and she was would try her best to ensure that she was suited for the job.

**...Guardians**

North also gathered the Guardians, Yetis, and Elves for a Christmas dinner. It was a sure way to celebrate a hard working year and bring in the tidings of a new one. After tonight, North and his many workers were taking the next twenty four hours off and beginning work for next year exactly on the twenty seventh. Kristy had been helping the Yetis earlier today with the cooking while North had been inventing new toys within his office, or at least that's what he had told Kristy. North was absolutely ecstatic about what he was going to give Kristy as a second Christmas present, even if she did enjoy the necklace he had made for her.

At the dinner table Jack was beginning to make trouble after he had finished his meal. He'd started freezing cups, watching with that bit bottom lip of his for the very moment his victims tried to drink from their cups only to have ice hit them in the face. Jack would then outright chuckle and earn a glare from his victim. Kristy, the mother of the group, tsked Jack and scolded him with a grin. He ceased his trouble, Tooth distracting him with a question about something or other. North realized for the first time in a long time, as he watched Kristy being distracted by Jack and now by the Elves who were getting on the table and knocking plates and glasses everywhere, that he'd suddenly became very, very nervous.

He waited for the opportune moment, and found it shortly after Phil started intervening to help Kristy control the mess that was about to ensue. So, he pushed his chair back and stood. He took in a sharp breath as nobody paid attention to him at first, and dug into his pants pocket. He pulled out the small velvet box, knelt down next to Kristy as her attention was on the table like the rest of the dinner party, and gently took her left hand. She finished yelling at one of the Elves about behaving and turned, gasping in sharply as she took in North on his knee with the small velvet box.

North opened the small velvet box, his eyes glittering in wonder at Kristy's gaping mouth, and was seconds from proposing before she hugged him tightly and yelled, clear and crisp,

"YES!"

Clapping ensued around the table, and a special moonbeam surrounded Kristy that evening as they stood within North's office. From this night on, Kristy was immortal for as long as North was.

**...Pitch**

Pitch sat on his obsidian throne in his shadow realm, the many Fearlings he'd made into a human blob shape working diligently on the weed that had grown over his hole in the ground that sat beneath a tattered bed frame. He had watched North propose, disgusted with the feat, and had turned off the image soon as that Cian family member had hugged North. Not only was North housing her, but now he was marrying her. Disgusting.

Pitch scoffed, barking at the Fearlings who shambled past him to work faster at that annoying weed. They did, their featureless faces nodding and their various sized bodies working faster with obsidian tools. Pitch marveled at his newest forms for his Nightmares, which he'd dubbed as Fearlings. He'd wanted to try them, and probably should have, but wasn't so sure that he could handle them. They tended to work, only one or two needing to be pushed into following his orders. He sat back on his throne, his silver eyes glittering with menace.

He needed to find the rest of those Cian family members. He'd looked earlier and came to the conclusion that, over all, there were only twenty documented. He'd found some joy in such a small number. He'd then also found more joy when he realized he could easily snuff out the rest of this ailing family with these new Fearlings. When the small sliver of light, chipped away by the Fearlings, began to brighten, Pitch knew they were getting much closer to being free by this point. He decided to send out the few Fearlings that could exit his realm through the small hole they'd made in the root to collect whatever fears they could come across.

Pitch brought up an image on his globe, one of an aging man whose fears seemed to sing a song of a siren to him. The best part? He was one of the Cian family members, and he was desperate. He curled his finger at one particular Fearling. The thing stepped forward, taking a knee in front of him. He gave it swift orders and it ducked off into his realm towards the exit. That sinister smirk crawled up his features as he slouched down in his throne and began to contemplate his next move.

He may have lost the previous battles, but a new one was on the horizon. This wasn't over, not by a long shot.****

**END.**

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****Another note that my editor added her 2 cents here ^_^.


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